Note 529 — Chapter XXX · MEDICAL.

Bleeding and purging—these were the main remedies relied on in those old days; something to make the patient remember his illness by, as he did his doctor's bill, by the quantity of medicine he had swallowed. Brown, satirist as he was, was truthful, even to coarseness, and neither he nor Ward told lies in order to round a sentence, or point an epigram. This is how Brown[529] makes a fashionable physician describe his practice: 'He pays well, and takes Physick freely; besides I particularly know his Constitution; after Bleeding, he must take a Purge or two, then some Cordial Powders, Dulcifiers of the Blood, and two or three odd things more.... I tell you 'tis an easie thing for a Man of Parts to be a Surgeon; do but buy a Lancet, Forceps, Saw; talk a little of Contusions, Fractures, Compress and Bandage; you'll presently, by most People, be thought an excellent Surgeon.... I myself have turn'd out several Doctors out of Families because they would not prescribe Physick plentifully, and in large Quantities. I have perswaded my Patients, that they did not well understand their Distemper; so have brought in another who has swingingly dos'd 'um. I could tell you of a Sir Harry that paid an £100 for Physick in six Weeks, and I accepted it, being a Friend, without requiring one Penny for my own Fees.'