THE PHILOSOPHER, OR THE PHYSICIAN

CONSULTED BY NATURE

Unless our age returns to these roots, no one will ever experience a perfect Physician. One is not truly skilled in all Medicine who has neglected one of its parts. Nor can one practice Medicine entirely if they do not know how to work according to every part of the art. That ancient doctrine of healing was the same mistress for both correctly prescribing and correctly making medicines. The teachers were not separated into different groups. Instead, the same people were instructors in healing and in the careful crafting of medicines. Chyron Phyllirides Chiron the Centaur, son of Philyra, who was among the greatest of the ancients, first discovered the powers of herbs. He passed that skill to Æsculapius the god of medicine whom he had taken to educate. Irus, the son of Mermerus and grandson of Jason and Medea, was a Physician of Ephyra. He refused to provide toxic drugs to Ulysses Odysseus for killing wild beasts and coating arrows, even though he asked earnestly. He feared they would be misused for the destruction of men. Melampus a legendary healer and seer soaked black veratrum hellebore, a plant used to treat madness in goat's milk and freed the daughters of King Proetus from their frenzy. Philo Philo of Tarsus, a Physician of Tarsus, skillfully arranged remedies for medical use that he had made himself.

Yet it is certain that not one of these men allowed themselves to be pulled away from deep contemplation and writing just because they were busy preparing medicines. How much less today should those who dedicate themselves to both types of work be forced to set aside the noble meditations of the soul? Rather, they should find that their success in crafting substances confirms their thoughts. They would then push themselves further into the deep knowledge of natural bodies. If a Physician is not ashamed of Meditation, why should he be ashamed of operationis practical operation or manual work? Who would think that more should be given to the hands than to the soul? No one wants a soul ignorant of all science, nor hands that have no experience of things. Why not? By the help of the hands, we can often reach into the innermost organs of the most hidden things, where the soul alone is not permitted to go.

I will order you to pull these defenders of medical

teneritudinis delicacy or softness away from the tomb as quickly as possible. These are people who turn away from the hands being stained by mud, or the face being dirtied by ashes and coals. They avoid the irritation of the nose by furnaces and sparks. They shout with full cheeks about some kind of "Vulcanian filth" original: "Vulcania spurcitie," referring to Vulcan, the god of the forge and fire. Apparently, it was such a great matter to hate Chymiatria chemical medicine because of these stains, if they even exist. They pass by with a "dry foot" a Latin idiom meaning to avoid a subject or avoid getting involved things that are much more lowly and affect the medical senses in a much filthier way.

What is more obscene than the pus of Carcinomata cancerous ulcers? What is more foul than the breath of bubonum bubonic sores or plague boils? What is nastier than the filth of the bowels? What, I ask, is more shameful than urine, menstrual blood, dung, flatulence, spit, and sweat? And yet these things are more acceptable to our anti-chemists than those superficial spots of dust that are easily removed with a sponge and a small bowl of water. It is truly a marvel that either long-held hatred or foolish ignorance can be so powerful. Both of these heavy evils affect these petty critics today. They are like the citizens of Cuma in the past. These citizens had pawned the noble porches surrounding the Cuman forum to tax collectors. Out of hatred for the money-lenders, they preferred to get soaked by the rain in the middle of the forum during a storm rather than take shelter in those porches.

As if it were more worthy for a Physician to be subjected to those corpse-like impurities than to suffer a bit of dirt from soot in the Temple of Nature. In the past, the most invincible Kings famous throughout the East, especially in Egypt and Persia, practiced the art of that great mastery, which is Alchymia Alchemy, together with the Philosophers. Our own age has not produced such delicate Princes and Heroes in the whole world that they are ashamed or disgusted by furnaces, the art of casting original: "artis fusoriæ", the art of distilling original: "destillatoriæ", and similar noble mechanical works. Should some common physician, whose job it was to be able to prepare medicines well, care so much about his reputation for "majesty" that he only worries about having clean skin? Believe me, LISTENERS, whoever dreams that this external ornament adds to their learning and science acts as if someone gave the name of Hylas or Hyacinthus two figures from myth famous for their extreme beauty to someone of the most hideous appearance.