A PLEA FOR THE Chymists or Non-Colegiats: OR, CONSIDERATIONS Natural, Rational, and Legal, in Relation to MEDICINES.

NAture being the Genetrix of all things, hath at all times and seasons like a careful Mother brought forth Remedies for the Disease•▪ and also Persons and Physicians to Communicate or Administer them to Mankind; as 'tis written, God Createth the Physician: So that Naturally Medicines and Physicians are not the pr•duct of Art or Societes, because they were in the World long before Academies and Colledges, and were manifested in single Persons, such as Escula∣pius, Mac•aan, Hippocrates, &c. when there was no other Guide or Teacher, but the Ins•inct or Perception of Nature, by which they arrived to that great Distinction and Natural Knowledg in Heal∣ing; which Universities and Schools have since e•deavoured to imitate onely by a bare remembrance of what was done: but the path of these Men no• being found, notwithstanding the Associations of the Schools and Colledges, no Improvements wa• made in Medicines for Two th••sand years.

Paracelsus having forsaken his Scholastick Tenet•, by following the light of N〈…〉e, did more unvail the secrets ••ereof in his single person, than all M•n that ever went before him and after him, Suchten, Basilius and H•lmont have demonstrated the Tru•• thereof. And seeing that Dis•ases at this da• are so multiplied • changed, and complicated, that the Method and Medicines of the Ancients are of lit∣tle or no eff••t for their Cure, must not every Ing••ious Person conclude it better, to follow the Dictates of Nature i•finding her own Path, to discern the •eanders of corrupting diseasifying Spirits, than •o believe tha• the Noise or Crowd of Lip learned M•n (who seek to destroy all those who do not adhere to them) sho••d be able to guide them.

The Let•••• Pa〈…〉 granted by King Hen. VI•▪ to the Colledge of Physicians in London▪ and their Confirmati•• by Parliament (if ever any su〈…〉) appear to be intended only for the preservation of the Kings •••jects, from such Evils and Mi〈7 letters〉 as might befall them under the pretence of Physick, either by the Malice or Ignorance of those who administred it; and not s〈…〉 upon Nature, to damn or prohibit all future search and improvement of Medicine, for Humane Pre∣servation, or to bind the people to an Empty Method (so much wanting in the cure of most Diseases, as many chuse Death rather than it) or purposely for the raising of a few Men to great Riches and Grandeur, much less that they should ever be interpreted, to suppress, stop, or hinder the use of a fitter Method, and better Medicines. Especially seeing most Diseases are long ago removed from their old Adaptions, through their several Changes and Complications; that it is disputable, Whether there be one true natural Remedy in all the heap of the Vulgar Medicines?

Now if they cannot make it appear, That those which they trouble and vex at the Law, are guilty of any Male Practice, that is, of Mischiefing any of the Kings Subjects, either through wilfulness or want of Understanding in what they profess; do not they manifestly pervert and elude the end and de∣sign of the Law, and make it wholly subservient to their own Gain and Grandeur? Besides, most of the Men they sue are Chymists, and upon a due Enquiry it will be found, that all the Adaequate or fit •m∣provements that hath been made in Physick since the first Constitution of their Colledge (here in Eng∣land as well as elsewhere) hath proceeded from the Industry of the Chymist only; I speak of such Improve∣ments as hath furnish'd us with more answerable and fitter Medicines and R•quisites for the healing of Diseases: such being things as are really and naturally servicable to Mankind, Their Anatomical Dis∣coveries (of which they so much boast) serving only for Ostentation and Artificial Discourse, being as necessary for the curing of internal Diseases, as painted Glass is in a Window, for the Advancement of •ight.

When their Letters Patents was granted, Chymistry was not known here, and therefore could not by them be pre-judged, nor can it reasonably be supposed that their Charter should have any more force against the Chymists, than those of the Fletchers, Bowyers, and Bow-string Makers, could have against Guns an• Gun smiths, which had no being when their Charters were granted; and therefore when they came into use, could be accounted no infringement of their Charters▪ not being the same thing as Bowyers made, though to be used for the same end. Even so it is between the Col∣ledg and the Chymists; for as J have already said, the Colledges Grant never intended to hinder the Improvement of Physick by any way or ingenuity which should afterwards arise, and not known to that present Age (no more than the Bowyers Charter was designed to prevent the invention of new Jnstru∣ments of War and such is Chymist•y, which al•hough it indeed tendeth to the same end) with the Colledges practice, to wit, the healing of Diseases, yet it maketh not use of the same Means. For Chymists make no use of their Method or Medicines, but imploy their own▪ which differ as much from what theirs was at their Constitution, as a Gun from a Bow. And if the Colledge at this day have bet∣•ered their Medicines, have they not been obliged to Chymists for it? Witness divers of the Receip's in their Dispensatory, which they have taken from Paracelsus, Basilius, Quciritan, &c. whose names they have been so unkind for the most part to conceal, being willing to assume that to themselves which is really due to such men as they trouble: How frequently do they use Crocus Metallorum, Antimonium,
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Diapnoreticum▪ and few years since Bezoardicum Minerale in Malignant Fevors, neither of which are their own Invention, but are the Remedies of Basilius and Crollius, who were Chymists; although indeed those and other Chymical Remedies, which they use (and on which they much rely in Chronick Dis∣eases, where they know their own will do nothing) are known to the Chymists of these days (who have made Improvement) to be none of the best Medicines. But supposing them to be as good as any this day known, is it not highly unreasonable that those who are but Plagiaries should be the more esteem∣ed on their account, when the Off-spring of Chymists, those Men who constantly labour in the Fire, and are the Inventors of Medicines, shall be slighted, contemned, and vexed at the Law for so doing? How should Medicines be improved, if the Inventors and Makers of Medicines may not when they have made them, use them for the benefit of Diseased People? If it •e objected, They ought when made, to be prescribed by a Learned Doctor; J answer that the Doctors are not willing to prescribe a step out of their own beaten Path; and if any be found so generous, yet it could be to no more purpose than for one who understands nothing of the making a Clock or Watch, to order the Watch-maker how to handle his Too•s, or to make a Move∣ment: for believe this for a certain truth, That no Man who is sufficiently grounded in Nature, for the bringing forth any true Medicine, can want a Capacity to admini•ter it.

Hence it appears that it is as Rational for a Man that hath obtained true Medicine, to give to him that stands in need thereof, as to give Bread to the hungry; and true Medicine is as safe as Food, and much more useful, when Na•ure requires it.

Notwithstanding I am a Legal Physician, neither do they Prosecute me as Illegal, or for Male Practice; but for Practising within their Limits; for which they say, they have a Law: which doth not yet appear. But suppose it be a Law, one would will•ngly know who should cure those that they cannot, and also say they cannot cure them: Surely they have no Law to forbid all men, or any body else, to heal or cure those that they cannot? If they have, I confess ingeniously I have broken it many times, not only when they have said they could not cure the Parties, but also that it was impossible that any body else should.

And many of the Catalogue of Incurables J have cured; so that my Prosecution is purely for doing good, which these Men will in time to come, be ashamed of. If the Magistrate would, for the Benefit and Preservation of his Majesties Subjects, require a publick Probate of our Method and Medicines up∣on the Sick taken out of Hospitals, it would quickly appear where the Fitter Method and Fitter Medi∣cines lay.

Because they see that I Cure divers Distempers, with one, two, three, four, or a few Medicines, they cry he hath but one Medicine; trul• with one Good Medicine, one may soon do more than they can with the whole heap of Farraginous, Useless, Feculent and Truculent Medicines; yet I may justly pretend to more variety than they, although J hate to make use of any thing that is not really serviceable to Hu∣mane Nature, or to give two Medicines where one will serve, or three where two will be sufficient; or to make an Apothecaries Shop of my Patients Chamber, to inflame the Reckoning, or to destroy the Virtue and Power of the good Medicine, if there be one good amongst them, with a heap of insignificants, which serve onely to open the gate.

For the Remedies they prescribe, are for the most part Bodies or Subjects clog'd with their Terrene Parts, Crudities, and Excrements, by which they become burdensome to the Sick, which they should as∣sist. When on the contrary, those Men that walk in Natures Path in preparing their Medicines; make such separation of all their Impurities and Defilements, and do so set at liberty and advance their Innate Vir∣tues, as renders them capable of communicating their Efficacy to the languishing Spirits (which needs not variety but a fit adaption) without burthening or nauceating of Nature; and to hinder such Im∣provements in Medicine, is to limi• and set bounds to Nature (which is always free and bountiful to Industrious Searchers) and to de•y the painful Bee the use of the Honey which her self hath made: nei∣ther doth such an unnatural restriction onely affect the Diligent Searchers into Medicine, but it extends it self farther, even to all men in general: for if People may not have the liberty to make choice of what Physicians or Medicines they please▪ then must the Natural Ties of Friendship be violated, and the Father cannot do for the Child, nor the Child for the Father, nor one Friend for another, what they would; the which was never designed by Nature, or intended by any Law.

Furthermore, 'Tis strange to thinking Men, that Gentlemen of such Education and Learning, bearing that Figure in the World which they do; should be so blind, as not to consider the doubtfulness of that Law by which they excercise Authority to trouble Men; seeing 'tis certainly known that in the Cases of Barker, Read, Tri•g and others, above Twenty Years ago, they were foil'd; for in the Trial of Barker, before Judge Nicols, the Role being brought into Court on the Defendants behalf, he was acquitted. And when the others were tried before the Lord Chief J•stice, St John, he declared to them, That to make that an Act of Parliament, they must call King Henry out of his Grave to Sign it.

And of late Years hath not Fletcher, Trigg, Harder, &c. upon the same doubts been referr'd to a Spe∣cial Verdict, which is yet undecided, the Jury not being willing to i•termeddle therewith. Yet, as if these Men were insensible of all things done, they are vexatious to Men of Industry, whose Reasons of not submiting to them they neither have nor vvill scan; nor is it probable they should, vvho take no other measure for their Judgment, but their pretended, and as yet undetermined Lavv.

Very much more J have to say to shevv the Unreasonableness of these Proceedings, but J refer it to a Book vvhich J intend to Publish, if God give me Life and Health, in order to the Vindication, Manifesta∣tion, Usefulness, Benefit, Safety and Necessity of Chymistry to eradicate Diseases: And the Uselessness, Unprofitableness, Unfitness, Hurtfulness and Dammage (to Humane Nature) of most of the Common Me∣dicines novv in use.

Suppose some of the Council or Judges being Sick, could not be Cured by the Colledge, will the Colledge say they ought to be contented to die, rather than obtain Cure by any body else? Or will these Gentlemen be contented to die a Sacrifice to them, rather than subm•t to the Cure from a Chymist that can perform it?

Presume there were a Law made (when there was no better Medicine) known to prevent damage and hurt to the Kings Subjects, will that Law serve to prohibit the preservation of the life of the Kings Sub∣jects when there is fitter and better Medicines Discover'd? Moreover we cannot find that the Law they pretend to and sue by, was ever Sign'd or had the Royal Assent

London, Printed for the Author Nat. Merry at the Star in Bow-lane, 1683.