Culpeper's English physician ; and complete herbal ... Illustrated with notes and observations, critical and explanatory / By E. Sibly.

  • Culpeper, Nicholas, 1616-1654
Date:
1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Culpeper's English physician ; and complete herbal ... Illustrated with notes and observations, critical and explanatory / By E. Sibly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/768 (page 11)
    Ki ^•ith difeafe, and the period of human life lefs contra(5led. The labora- tory of nature, were it but confulted, furnilhes ample remedies for every curable diforder incident to mankind 3 for notwithflanding the parade of compound medicines, the art of healing confids not fo much In the preparation, as in the due application of the remedy. Hence it happens that old women, without education or abilities, by the help of a liinplc herb gathered in the planetary hour, in which hour it imbibes its greateft ilrength and efculent virtue, will fometimes perform very extraordinary cures, in cafes where the regular bred Phyfician is abfolutely at a lofs how to treat them. I would not here be underftood to call any unworthy reflections upon thofe exalted characters, who have made Phyfic, and the alleviation of human infirmity, the principal ftudy of their lives. The many invaluable difeoveries lately added to the Pharmacopceia, both from the vegetable and mineral worlds, arc ftrong arguments of the neceflity of regular prac- tice, and of profefiional education, in forming the Phyfician. But were the bulk of thefe gentlemen to confult a little more the planetary in- fluences, and the effeCts of Saturn and the Moon in each crifis and critical day, and regulate their preferiptions accordingly, I am perfuaded more immediate relief would in moft cafes be afforded to the fick and languhh- ing patient. Surgery too, which, like a guardian Angel, fleps forward to alleviate the perillous accidents of the unfortunate, would gain much improvement by the like confideratlons. It is not the humane and liberal profefiTors of phyfic or furgeiy, whofe practice deferves cenfurc, but that mercenary tribe of pretenders to phyfic, who now pervade the kingdom, and, like a fwarm of locufls from the eafl, prey upon the vitals of mankind. Thefe monfliers in the lliape of men, with hearts callous to every fentiment of compaflion, have only fees in view. Governed by this fordid principle, they fport with life, unmoved amidft the bitter •anguifli and piercing groans of the tortured patient, whom, when too far ^one for human aid to reflore, they abandon to defpair and death. To