DimBCTIOFB FOR MAKIVO ST11ITP8, &0. il5 



that ao hj swallowing them whole, the bitterness of the me- 

 dicine might not be perceived, or at least might not be in- 

 Bufierable ; and indeed most of their pilla, though not all, 

 are very bitter. 



3. 1 am of clean contrary opinion to this, I rather think 

 they were done up in this hard form that so they might be 

 the longer digesting. The ftrst invention of pills was to purge 

 the head; now, as I told you before, such mfirmities as Ue 

 near the passages were best removed by decoctions, because 

 they pass to the grieved parts soonest ; so here, if the infir- 

 mity lies in the head or any other remote part, the best way 

 ia to use pills, because they are longer m digesting, and 

 therefore oetter able to call the offenciing humours to theuL 



4. If I should tell you here a long taJe of medicines work- 

 ing by sympathy and antipathy, you would not understand 

 a word of it ; they that are set to make physicians may find it 

 in the treatise. All modem physicians know not what be- 

 longs to a 8-\Tnpathetical cure, no more than a cuckoo what 

 belongs to flats and sharps in music, but follow the vulgar 

 road, and call it a hidden ouality, because it is hidden from 

 the eyes of dunces, and indeed none but astrologers can give 

 a reason for it ; and physic without reason is uke pudding 

 without fat. 



6. The way to make pills is very easy, for with the help 

 of a pestle and mortar, and a little diligence, vou may make 

 any powder into pills, either with syrup or tne jelly 1 told 

 Tou before. 



CHAPTER XV. 



The %Day of mixing Medicijies according to the cause of the 

 Disease^ and part of the body ajfflicted. 

 This being indeed the key of the work, I shall be some- 

 what the more diligent in it. I shall deliver myself thus : 



1. To the vulgar. 



2. To such as study astrology ; or such as study physic 

 ».-irologically. 



Ist. To the vulgar. Kind souls, I am sorry it hath been 

 your sad mishap to have been so long trained in such Egyp- 

 tian dArknesa, even darkness which to your sorrow may be 

 felt. The vulgar road of physic is not in my practice, and I 

 am therefore the more unfit to give you advice. I have now 

 pubUohed a httle b(X)k, (Every Mrni his own Doctor) *vhich will 

 fully instruct you, not only in the knowledge of your own 

 bo<liea, but also in fit merhdnes to remedy each part of it 

 when afHicted ; in the mean season take these few rules to 

 stay vour stomachs. 



1. With the djHease regard the cause, and the part of the 

 body afflicted ; for example, suppose a woman be subjt>ct tc 

 mii«cnrry through wind, Lhuit da: 



