APOTHECARIES.

139

taken from the usual practice of the stork, or ibis; whichbird, when ill, is observed to inject the water of the Nile upthe usual passage,) and purging potions, abstinence, andvomits; and this they repeat sometimes for several days toge-ther, at other times, every third or fourth day : for in allmanner of food, they say, the greatest part is superfluous,which breeds diseases; and therefore the aforesaid method,whereby the root of the disease is plucked up, they say, isa mighty help, better for the preservation and recovery ofhealth; for the physicians have a public stipend, andmake use of the receipts published by the law, made up bythe ancient physicians ; and if they cannot cure the patientby them, they are not blamed ; but if they make othermedicines they are to suffer death ; inasmuch as the law-makers appointed such receipts for cure as were approved bythe most learned doctors, such as by long experience hadbeen found effectual.

The learned Dr. Sir Thomas Browne , in his PseudodoxiaEpidemica, in the chapter on vulgar and common errors,thus observes, “ Physicians, many at least that make pro-fession thereof, besides divers less discoverable ways offraud, have made them (the public) believe, there is thebook of fate, or the power of Aarons breast-plate in urine ;and, therefore, hereunto have they recourse as to the oracleof life, the great determination of virginity, conception,fertility, and the iuscrutible infirmities of the whole body;for as though there were a seminality in urine, or that likethe seeds it carried with it the idea of every part; theyfoolishly conceive, we (the physicians) behold therein theauatomy of every particle, and can thereby indicate theirdiseases, and running into any demands, expect from usas sudden resolution in things, wherein the devil of Delphoswould demur, and we know hath taken respite of sompdays to answer easier questions.

“ Saltimbalcoes, Quacksalvers, and Charlatans deceivethem in lower degrees. Were iEsop alive, the Piazza atVenice, and Pont Neuf at Paris , could not but speaktheir falacies; meanwhile there are too many whose criescannot conceal their mischief; for their impostures are fullof cruelty, and worse than any other, deluding not onlyunto pecuniary depredations, but the irreparable deceit ofdeath.”

The same author in chapter iv. book 1. of the samework, in his explication of the third cause of some popularerrors, he has enumerated upon this division the Aris-totelian causes of error, A non causa pro causa, observes,