The People's Doctors: A Review
Por Daniel Drake
WHEN, WHERE, OR HOW,
THE PUBLISHERS OF THE FOLLOWING
THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE'S DOCTORS,
GOT HOLD OF THE MS.
(WHICH MEANS A PIECE OF WRITING;)
A SECRET,
WHICH,
LIKE THOSE CONTAINED IN
THE PEOPLE'S DOCTOR-BOOKS,
OUGHT NOT TO BE TOLD:
ANY ONE, THEREFORE, SHOULD WISH TO KNOW OF THE AUTHOR,
'DO YOU BITE YOUR THUMB AT ME, SIR?'
HE HAD BETTER ASK
OPINION OF HIS NEIGHBOURS.
MICROFILMED
PROLEGOMENON.
"Art thou there, my child, (said he) I was just thinking of thee; having occasion for a good lad to serve me, I imagined that thou wouldest answer my purpose very well, if thou canst read and write."-Sir, (answered I) in that particular I can do your business. "Say'st thou so (said he;) then thou art the man I want: come to my house, where thou shalt find every thing agreeable: I will treat thee with distinction; and though I give no wages, thou shalt want for nothing: I will take care to maintain thee handsomely; and will even discover to thee the great mystery of curing all diseases; in a word, thou shalt rather be my pupil than my servant."
I accepted the doctor's proposal, in hopes of making myself illustrious in physick, under the auspices of such a learned master; and he carried me home with him on the instant, in order to initiate me in the employment for which I was designed. This employment consisted in writing the names and places of abode of the patients who sent for him while he was abroad: for this purpose there was in the house a register.
I was invested with the charge of this book, which might have been with great justice styled a register of the dead; for almost all the people whose names it contained gave up the ghost. I inserted in it (to use the expression) the names of those people who were to set out for the other world, as the clerk of a stage-coach-office registers those who take places. The pen was seldom out of my hand, because there was not at that time a physician in of more credit than doctor, who had acquired great reputation with the public, by a pomp of words, a solemn air, and some lucky cures which had done him more honor than he deserved.
"Hark'ee, my child, (said he one day) I am not one of those harsh and ungrateful masters who let their domestics grow grey in their service, before they recompense them. I am well pleased with
thy behaviour, I have a regard for thee, and without further delay will make thy fortune. I will immediately disclose to thee the whole extent of that salutary art which I have professed so many years. Other physicians make this to consist in the knowledge of a thousand difficult sciences: but I intend to go a shorter way to work, and spare thee the trouble of studying Pharmacy, Anatomy, Botany, and Physic."
"This is the secret of curing all the distempers indident to man. Yes! that wonderful secret which I reveal to thee, and which nature, impenetrable to my brethren, hath not been able to hide from my researches, is contained in these two points
"I have nothing more to impart; thou knowest physic to the very bottom, and reaping the fruit of my long experience, art become in a twinkling as skillful as I am."
A CATALOGUE
THE BOOKS TO BE REVIEWED,
New Guide to Health; or Botanic Family Physician. Containing a complete system of practice upon a plan entirely new; with a description of the vegetablesmade use of, and directions for preparing and administering them to cure disease. To which is added a description of several cases of disease attended by the Author, with the mode of treatment and cure. By SAMUEL THOMSON.Horton Howard, Columbus, 1828. pp. 115.
A course of fifteen Lectures on Medical Botany, denominated Thomson's new theory of medical practice; in which the various theories that have preceded it, are reviewed and compared; delivered in Cincinnati, Ohio. By SAMUEL ROBINSON.-Horton Howard, Columbus, 1829.—pp. 200.
Cases of cures performed by the use of Swaim's Panacea. By WM. SWAIM, Philadelphia, 1827.-pp. 84.
The Pulmist; or Introduction to the Art of curing and preventing the Consumption or chronic Phthisis. A medical essay, including a new and better distinction of its causes, kinds, remedies, diets, and other peculiarities. By Professor RAFINESQUE, Ph. D. and Pulmist, Professor of Practical and Medical Botany, Natural and Civil History, &c. &c.-Philadelphia, 1829.
The Compleat English Physician, or, the Druggist's Shop Opened.Explicating all the particulars of which Medicines at this day, are Composed and made. Shewing their various Names and Natures, their several Preparations, Virtues, Uses and Doses as they are applicable to the whole Art of Physic, and containing above 600 Chymical processes.
A work of exceeding use to all sorts of Men, of what Quality or Profession soever. The like not hitherto extant.
In X. Books. Multa multumque. By WILLIAM SALMON, Professor of Physic. London. pp. 1207.-1693.