the pretended Act upon which their Declaration was grounded told the Adversaries Counsel that he could not give Judgment for them by such an Act which had not the Royal Assent to it they fearing or seeing that Judgment was likely to go against them did by their Counsel pray a special Verdict and so it ended and hangs to this day almost twenty years since in expectation of that special Verdict which is to put an end to the Cause to Fletcher's very great Honour and the shame and Disgrace of the Fellows of the Warwick-Lane Monopoly By these Presidents and Examples it is manifest that four Great Judges or Lord Chief Justices of England when a Tryal has come before them which has depended upon the force of this pretended Act would not when the Act it self in the Parliament Roll was brought before them and the Subjects of England demanded Judgment according to the Law of the Land presume to give a Judgment by it against them X. Blew Book This Society has improved Physick and made more Discoveries in Nature than all the rest of the Physicians in Europe They have found out the Circulation of the Blood perfected the Materia Medica Corrected the Dispensatory and brought Physick to a greater Certainty and Perfection since Henry VIII time than their Predecessors did in Two thousand years before Page 6. Salmon This is a wonderful Brag and an admirable way of Boasting and yet after all we will prove that there is not one word of it Truth Nor do I believe that they can produce any one single Discovery in Nature or any rare and specifick Medicament of their Invention or any other ways have added any advantage to the Art of Physick since they have been a Body to this day except that memorable Design of Degrading themselves from being Doctors and in earnest turning Apothecaries by purely stealing the Apothecaries Trade from them I see no reason why the Apothecaries and Chirurgians may not as well turn Doctors and practise Physick as having a greater right to it as they to steal the Apothecaries Trade from them to which they have not the least Pretension But to the matter in hand they say That they have found out the Circulation of the Blood I wonder at their Impudence when they had no more hand in that Invention than they had in building of the Pyramids of Egypt that excellent and admirable Production was the sole Discovery of that most ingenious Man Dr. Harvey a Chirurgian and a Member of the Chirurgians Company whom afterwards for the Honour of his great Name they seduced to be a Member of their Conventicle They say they have perfected the Materia Medica yet that is a thing of so large a Consideration that it is not possible for the Series of all Ages to perform it but if Bragging and Boasting and Lying would do it they are the likeliest Men to do it in the World I wonder that Men should have the Confidence to affirmat this rate when they know themselves that not one of twenty of them knows by sight one Drug of an hundred when they see it or can call them by their proper Names much less do they know them being Compounded into Medicines and as for their knowledge of the Art of Compounding Medicaments I leave that to be judged of by the Learned in the Art who will give themselves the idle time to view the many silly and unlearned Books they have from time to time published to the detriment of Mankind The choicest of all Remedies are prepared by Chymistry which is an Art they have from its first Invention decry'd even almost to this present time how then should they become all of a sudden knowing in an Art they have ever so slighted and despised and since the Materia Medica is not to be perfected but by Chymistry and that their Knowledge and Skill in it is so short and so narrow so poor and so mean how is it possible that the perfection thereof should ever lye within the Spheres of their activity They say They have Corrected the Dispensatory if so this gives a dreadful box of the Ear to their Predecessors who had not Learning nor Skill enough to form a good Pharmacopoeia but to leave it under their Correction But why should we believe that these present Fellows are wiser or more skilful than those who went before them And for what reason can we believe them to be honester As for their Dispensatory they so brag of it is too true a Jest to say it had almost an infinite number of Faults in it but as for their mending of it it is Tinker-like done if ever they mended one hole in it they made ten more for it But I am of Opinion that they made faults where there were none and brought it forth into the World ten times worse than they found it as you may easily perceive if you examine it by my Translation thereof and my Comment thereupon and tho' therein I have Corrected it in some hundreds of places where the faults of it were very gross yet a thousand other faults in it I have left untouched for brevity sake They say They have brought Physick to a greater Certainty and Perfection than their Predecessors did in Two thousand Years before That is to say to a certain Method of Quacking which the Ancient and Learned Physicians for above two thousand years last past never knew nor understood We know by your exouisite endeavours you have brought the whole essential part of Physick to the use of about five things viz. of the Cortex Steel Opium Mercurius Dulcâ—… and Blood sucking these you have determined for the Cure of all Diseases which you promiscuously use I will not say as the Toy takes you in the Head but according as your Discretion shall direct you This rare Method I confess the Ancients knew nothing of 't is you that have Consummated Physick to this Acme of Perfection and out-done in their own way all the Quacks that ever were in the World before you You have brought Physick to such a certainty that if a Man goes to any Apothecary and does but tell him the name of his Doctor he will before-hand tell him what he will prescribe to his Patient let the Disease be what it will What can the World think now of this exquisite Certainty What a shame is it to all the Ancient Doctors of our Art that a few upstarts Fellows but of yesterday should stumble upon five such admirable things which by their own Powers and Efficacy should be able to absolve the whole Practise of Physick What thick skull'd Fellows were Hippocrates Galen Avicen Celsus and a Thousand more of them that they should not hit upon a few things so facile and easy to be found out Oh no! the Honour and Glory of it was perfectly designed for the Men of our Age for the Wonder-working and mighty Professors of Warwick-lane XI Blew-Book Physicians had reason to
distinction of Men professing our Art They say It was th … ht necessary that one Person should cure only inward Diseases another outward Diseases c. but I ask them when or at what time it was so thought necessary and who it was by whom it was so thought necessary I doubt it will be either too hard or too shameful a Task for them to tell it was only thought necessary by a company of ignorant scoundril Fellows who scarcely knew any thing more of Physick or Medicine but the Name and by such who had no more Right to the Profession thereof than Thieves and Robbers From hence it appears That an honest skilful Apothecary and Chirurgian are the only true Men to make Physicians and Doctors of as being the Men that can best and most easily understand and attain to the true knowledge of prescribing Internals And to speak the truth the Art of Prescribing which now makes a Doctor is the easiest part of the whole Art of Physick and easiest to be learned much more easy I am sure than Pharmacology and Chirurgery which our pitiful proud ignorant Doctors so mightily scorn and despise VII Blew-Book Our wise Ancestors seeing that not only sound Judgment but likewise great Learning and suitable Experience were requisite to qualify Physicians for Curing inward Diseases thought fit to establish able Professors of Physick in all the Vniversities of Europe Page 4 5. Salmon Who your Ancestors were I know not nor do I believe that you can tell But our wise Ancestors thought fit for the Compleating of a Physician that he should perfectly understand the Materia Medica viz. the real Knowledge of all the Drugs used in Physick and truly understand the Preparing them into Medicines and withal be bred up in Mannual Operations and it is the true knowledge of these things that can give a Man a sound Judgment great Learning and suitable Experience not to skip at once from being a Pulpit-man or a Reader of Prayers to be a Doctor of Physick No this can by no means do at this rate and if these things would do any Man may become a Doctor of Physick but the learned Men in the Art will tell you another Tale Nor is it possible to establish able Professors of Physick in the Universities of Europe unless they be taken out of such Persons who have before hand served twelve or fourteen years to some able Apothecary and Chirurgian and withal have read over the Ancients and other Masters of our Art if the Universities did Cull out such as these to make Professors of such as Dr. Barbet Dr. Barnard Dr. Badger Dr. Greenvelt c. they would be able Professors indeed and not such Tools of Men as many of our Blew-Book Sparks are VIII Blew-Book To hinder likewise all Persons from practising Physick but such as took their Degrees and to let none take their Degrees but such as their Abilities recommended after due Examination Page 5. Salmon That is in plain English to Monopolize all the Practise of Physick into their own hands and that they may be impowered to abuse all Mankind and to Persecute all others who are not of their Class of Doctors which I hope the Mercies of God are such to the poor People of this City that he will never permit nor suffer for the future such ill-natured Fellows to Tyrannize or Domineer over their Fellow Creatures as they have of late done But what they mean by taking their Degrees is hard to be understood unless it be those of Mandamus Doctors Grace Doctors Proxy Doctors Caution Doctors ad eundem Doctors Master Doctors Half Doctors and No Doctors of which kind of Doctors the greatest part of their Conventicle is composed But if none should take their Degrees or be suffered to Practise but such as their Abilities should Recommend after due Examination I am afraid that the biggest part of the Warwick-lane Sparks would be interdicted the whole Practise of Physick and that many of the Persons whom they allow and approve of would be found so scandalously Ignorant as to be an Eternal Disgrace to the Learned Men of the Society But it may be I am mistaken and may not understand or know what they call Due Examination It may be that of Examining into their Abilities whether or no they are able to give eighty ninety or an hundred Pounds to be admitted as a Master Doctor Half Doctor or No Doctor into their Conventicle and so only have a License to Practise as of late they have done some pitiful Fellows to the manifest scandal of the Art of Physick I really believe if I was but to examine their Censors they would be as unfit and unable to answer me in some Questions I could put to them in the Art of Physick as the greatest Novice in the Art might be unfit or unable to answer them and that some of them who think they bear the greatest Names are the pittifullest and meanest Fellows of the pack IX Blew-Book King Henry VIII Erected a College of Physicians in London bestowing upon them a power confirmed by several Acts of Parliament to punish Mountebanks and all other Pretenders to Physick and to hinder likewise any Person from practising Physick in London or within seven Miles round it that was not legally received into this College tho' a Doctor of our own Vniversities Page 5. Salmon Monstrum horrendum saevissima Pestis That ever such a sort of Fellows as are themselves for the most part either no Doctors or but half Doctors Master Doctors ad eundem Doctors Caution Doctors Proxy Doctors Grace Doctors or Mandamus Doctors none of which sort of Doctors ever performed their Exercises for their Degree in any Vniversity especially in any of Our Vniversities at home should take upon them to hinder a real Doctor of Physick who has performed all his Exercises in Oxford or Cambridge from Practising Physick in London or in any other place seven Miles round the same and that under the pretext of a Law also who I say could ever believe such a thing But let us examine into it and see whether it be so or not That they have a Patent from Henry VIII let it be granted but all such Popular Patents in themselves which are not Confirmed by Act of Parliament are only Monopolies and tend to the hurt and detriment of the Subject I know not any reason why I or any Body else should be obliged by any Patent or Law to go to them to be killed or to repair to such Fellows while it does not appear to me or another Body concerned that they are really skilful and truly understand the Art of Physick in all its parts which I really believe the greatest part of them do not witness their thousands of Miscarriages a Catalogue of many of which I have by me and at their request am ready to make out with addition of both Patients and Doctors Names and that in Print As to their Patent there is
also some Question whether it be a true one or not for it seems not to be sealed with the right coloured Wax which ought to be yellow and with which all true Patents are commonly Sealed But supposing it be a true Patent it gives them no Power over Doctors of Physick who have actually taken their Degrees in Oxford and Cambridge nor have they a power to examine such who have accomplished all things for their Degrees without any Grace if so as it will be in vain for any one to take a degree in any of our Vniversities so it will make the College the greatest Monopoly in the World for as much as their skill or abilities tho' under so great a Probate as the Testimony and Seals of the Universities can be no qualification to privilege a Doctor of Physick to Practise in London and seven Miles round the same But they say This Patent is Confirmed by several Acts of Parliament But truly I cannot find yet that ever it was confirmed by one As for the pretended Act of 14 and 15 Henry VIII Cap. 5. I have seen and examined the Parliament Roll it self but in no part of the Act or Parchment upon which it is written neither on the foreside or backside nor on the top or bottom nor yet on either hand is the Royal Assent to be found which is of absolute necessity for the Constitution of an Act of Parliament if this be not true a Clark of Parliament who can draw the form of an Act may at the end of any Sessions of Parliament thrust what Unsign'd Acts he pleases or may be brib'd for into the Roll where having lain Dormant for some time or Number of years and being forgotten when in after Ages there shall be occasion to over-look the Rolls of Acts of Parliament they being found among the Number may by Posterity be taken for good Acts or Laws not questioning their Validity or how they came there tho' design trick or bribery were the very original Causes of their being found in that place and so at this rate a Clark of Parliament may Act Kings Lords and Commons all in his own Person to the great abuse and prejudice of the People of England their Lives Liberties Estates and Properties which thing for the great danger of it his Majesty and Parliament of England I hope will for the future be very careful of and this pretended Act thus obtruded upon the good People of this City and Nation I think ought to be look'd into and be rejected as a thing spurious and false and detrimental to our Constitution and Government As for that 1 Phil. Mary Ses 2. cap. 9. it is only a Confirmation of the former pretended Act. Now if that of 14 15 Henry VIII be no true Act then it is no Law and so is nothing and so the Confirmation of it is the Confirmation of no Law or of nothing and so in pleading can be of no use But let us examine a little farther and see how their Patent and pretended Act agree Their Patent says That the Community shall every year chuse a President out of the Community who shall transact all the Affairs of the College for his Year The pretended Act says that there shall be eight Elects and that every year the said Elects shall chuse a President out of the Elects Now let any Man of common Sense or Reason judge of these two and see how they agree If a President be chosen according to the Patent it Contradicts the Letter of the pretended Act. But if the President be chosen according to the words of the pretended Act it contradicts the very Letter of the Patent Now what Man in his Wits is there that cannot see that this pretended Act not having the Royal Assent was only a hasty Birth or unconsidered medly of Contradictions made to serve an End and that the Clerk not understanding possibly Latin made that gross mistake in wording his Act to the very great Detriment of the wicked Design Can any Man believe that so August and Wise Assembly of Men as a Parliament of England which are a Choice of all the Great Good and Wise Men of the Nation could be guilty of such a Heterogene piece of Work as that pretended Act is and word it so Incongruously or Contradictory to the Words of their Letters Patents thereby destroying in the one what is built up in the other And so confirm a Monopoly wonderfully prejudicial to the Lives Liberties Estates and Properties of the good People of England Surely No. But now to show you how much a Law this pretended Act is we will give you four famous Presidents of Cases tryed by it as to the very Merit of the Causes and thereby you may see what Validity it is of The First Instance we shall give you is that of the famous Dr. Trig who formerly lived upon Tower-Wharf whom they Sued and upon a fair Tryal at Law were as fairly Cast The Second Instance is that of Dr. Read who then Lived at the Sun in Long-Alley near Morefields This Man they Sued at Law also and the Merits of the Cause being Tryed they came as blewly off as before The Third Instance is that of Sir Richard Barker Kt. late of Barbacan London whom they Arrested and Sued in the King's-Bench This Gentleman as did the others before refusing to be Tryed by the Statute-Book as not being the Law it self but only a Copy of the Law requested to be Tryed by the Law of the Land which is the Act in the Parliament-Roll and was at the Charge and Expence of bringing the Parliament-Roll into Court so that the Book was rejected and the Roll it self only stood by upon which the Judge viewing the Act and not finding any where about it the Royal Assent told them in plain English that Judgment must go against them and that not finding the Royal Alsent to that Act upon which their Declaration was grounded he could not judge by it as a Law that it was not in his Power to make it a Law and that if they would have him to try the Cause by it as a Law they must first bring Henry VIII out of his Grave to Sign it and so the Cause went against them The Fourth Instance is that of Dr. Richard Fletcher which was Tryed at the King's-Bench in Guild-hall London Their Counsel brought their Green Bag wherein they had an Exemplification of some Tryal or Tryals which thro' the ignorance of those Defendents Lawyers went on the College-side But Mr. Wallop who was of Counsel for Fletcher put a stop as to the Issues being put upon their Green Bag and desired of my Lord that this our Cause might be Tryed by our Green Bag which when my Lord Chief Justice demanded what it was Wallop answered it was the Law of the Land and was as it appeared to be the Parliament-Roll which when his Lordship perused and found not the Royal Assent to