132 
made him lofe in that time a great deal of 
blood, and yet, to my furprize, he is now 
dead.*? Mrs. Patin, inher old age, was 
taken ill of a fever; twelve bleedings;. 
however, prefcribed by her hufband, re- 
ftored her to health ; upon which, HOHE 
Dr. Guy exclaims, with Joachim de Bel- 
lay, ** O bonne, O fainte, O divine fai- 
guée!” Herelates, that he had” ordered 
bleeding, with good fuccefs, for children 
who were not more than three days old. 
The minifters were carefully bled for the 
good of the ftate. ‘* M. Colbert was bled 
yefterday,”’ writes Patin to his correfpon- 
“dent, on the 6th of March, 1663: “* M. 
Ze Tellier is ill of a fever, for which he 
has been already bled four times.*” The 
famous Vanderlinden died at Leyden at™ 
the age of 53, of a defluxion on his lungs, 
for which he would not allow himfelf to 
be bled, but took fome dofes of antimony. 
‘© What’ a pity!’ exclaims Patin, §* to 
compofe fo many books, to have fo 
much Greek and Latin ready at his 
fingers’ ends, and after all to die of a 
fever and catarrh—fans fe faire faiguer. 
Tam much better off with my igfiorance, 
and now and then a bleeding.. But for 
bleeding I thould have died like him, three 
years fince. I Das Aisa caft my blood 
upon the dunghill, than commit my body 
to the grave. ae are the deaths of 
fools and chemitts !°” 
After the due courfe of blood letting, 
if the patient fill furvived, he was put, 
according to the rules of che college, upon 
a courfe of as violent purgation with fenna : 
and, if the frength of his confitutian was 
fach as to triumph alfo over this mode of 
attack, he was then fuffered to efcape into 
the country, and to recruit upon. afs’s 
milk. There were few difeafes in which, 
-on one pretence or another, this me thod 
of practice was not more or lefs followed. 
‘Where it failed of fuccefs, its, authors 
loudly boafted, that they acted upon the 
authority of Gale. and affirmed, that 
the failures were only becaufe all eran 
Means were, in thofe unfortunate cafes, 
vain to fave. f - 
On the other hand, there were not 
wanting innovatcrs, who derided Patin 
and the other phyficians of the old fchool, 
as merely Medecins de Crec et deLaiin; and 
who boldly oie to work wonders i in 
the art of hea aling, by means of new certain 
fpecifics. — 
*:~ Bezoar was one of thefe fpecifics, which 
Patin boldly ftigmatized, as a vain idolum 
jatuorum. z 
Another of thefe new fpecifics was fea, 
wi ich began, one the year 1648, to be 
From the Port folic of a Man of Letters: 
‘ 
[March 1, 
much celebrated atParis. ChancellorSeguier 
brought it fir into reputation. 
were written in its praife, 
in particular, faid to produce effeéts 
pleafingly exhilarating and invigorating on 
the powers of the mind. But Patin, sand 
all the phyficians of the old fchool, indig3 
nantly fcorned the pretence. 
riffet, of the college, was the author of a 
thelis in favour of this impertinent novelty 
of the age, as Patin calls it, againit which 
almof the whole college rofe in arms. 
Some Doétors committed the copies which 
were fent them of it to the flames, others 
put it afide, as charia ad fpurcos ufies re- 
jervauda. 
Antimony was anew remedy much more 
prevalent, though not lefs odious to Patin 
and his friends of ‘the fchool of Galen. 
Guenaut, one of the court-phyficians, 
often prefcribed it; and whenever a pa- 
tient who had taken of it happened to 
die, Patin, and ‘the other adverfaries of 
this remedy, if the incident came to their 
ears, failed not to cry out, that the anti- 
mony had: killed them. It was often 
given in the form of emetic wine; and no 
opportunity was miffed by the phy- 
ficians who difliked it, of ftigmatizing this 
wine as abfolutely a potfon. 
Quinguina, or Fefuit’s bar’, had begun 
to be adminifiered as a remedy in tertian 
and quartan fevers. The famous Fouquet 
an the beginning of his imprifonment, had 
oceafion to take quinquina, but was, 
Patin fays, little The better for it. It 
was denied by the-followers of Galen ta 
be capable of doing any good, except 
after a good courle of bleeding and pur- 
ging. Patin thought that it tended ta 
bring on the dropfy. 
Mercury was likewife a Ere pre- 
‘fcription with fome. It had been ordered 
by a phyfician of Patin’s acquaintance, for 
a complaint in the lungs. _ Tous les fous 
ue font pas dans les Petites-matfons—was 
Patin’s remark upon that occafion. 
Powder of pearl was often prefcribed, 
to the great indignation of Patin, by fome 
Thetes 
of his brethren, whom he accufes as lefs | 
the friends of their patients than of the 
apothecaries. 
Opium was another of the new medi- 
cines greatly abkorred by the phyficians 
of the good oid fchool, and branded as a 
frequent caufe of deaths. ; 
The Queen Mother, Anne ef Aufiria, 
was afflicted, in her laft illnefs, with-a 
cancer in her Jeft breaft. Many quacks 
offered their affidance for her cure, but 
all was in vain. © Patin, on that occafions 
mentions hemloc! Ky a9 a remedy in ofe for 
cancers, There 
And it was, - 
A Dr. Mo- - 
ee 
Sea ve 
So oo 
= 
ee 
= er 
ota 
4 
