340 NugdR ChirurgiciB, ^c. 



was Nell. Dr. Butler would many times goe to the taveme, but 

 drinke by himselfe : about nine or ten at niglit, old Nell comes to 

 him wjth a candle and lanthorne, and sayes, " Come home, you 

 drunken beast." By and by Nell would stumble, then her master 

 calls her " drunken beast ;" and so they did " drunken beast" one 

 another all the way till they came home.' 



" ' The Dr. lyeing at the Savoy in London, next the water side, 

 where was a balcony look't into the Thames, a patient came to 

 him that was grievously tormented with an Ague. The Dr. 

 orders a boate to be in readinesse under his windowe, and dis- 

 coursed with the patient (a gent.) in the balcony, when, on a 

 signal given, two or three lusty fellows came behind the gent., 

 and threw him a matter of twenty feet into the Thames. This 

 surprise absolutely cured him.' 



" ' A gent, with a red, ugly, pimpled face, came to him for a 

 cure. Said the Dr. " I must hang you." So presently he had a 

 device made ready to hang him from a beam in the roome ; and 

 when he was e'en almost dead, he cuts the veins that fed these 

 pimples, and lett out the black ugly blood, and cured him.' 



*' Butler must have been a man of abilities, for the Lord Trea- 

 surer Burleigh wrote to the President of the College of Physi- 

 cians, desiring that Butler might be allowed to practice in London 

 occasionally, and he was consulted, with Sir Theodore Mayerne 

 and others, in the sickness that proved fatal to Prince Henry; 

 and it is reported that Butler, at first sight of him, gave an unfa- 

 vorable prognostic. The account of this case affords such an 

 excellent notion of the consultations and practise of the doctors 

 of those days, that I am induced to give it as stated in the ' Desi- 

 derata Curiosa.' 



*' The Manner of the Sickness and Death of Prince Henry, 

 6th Nov. 1G12. 



*' ' Dr. Atkins, a Physician of London, famous for his practyce, 

 honestie, and learninge, was sent for to assiste the reste in the 

 cure. 



" ' He got worse, whereupon bleedinge was again proposed by 

 Dr. Mayerne, and the favorers thereof, alledging that in this case 

 of extremity, they must (if they meant to save his life) proceed in 

 the cure, as though he was some meane person. 



*' ' This was not agreed to, and next day, the Physicians, Chirur- 

 geons, and Apothecaryes seemed to be dismayed, as men per- 

 plexed, yet the most part were of opinion, that the crisis was to 

 been seene before a final dissolution. This day a cock was cloven 

 by the backe^ and applyed to the soles of his feete. But in vayne. 

 Shortly after it was announced that all hope was gone. His 

 Majestic then gave leave and absolute power to Dr. Mayerne, to 

 do what he woulde of himselfe, without advise of the rest ; but the 

 Doctor did not it seems like this, " for hee, weighing the greatness 



