yearly some striped ones, which if perfect, that is, striped in all the six leaves, would. but doubtfully continue, and perhaps return to their former state the next year; but if they laboured, or did not finish the stripings of all the six leaves the first year, there were better hopes of their continuing in that state. Though I had no mind to descend into the stone-pits, which are like our mines, wellfashion, and the stones wound up with great wheels, to husband the soil over them: yet I went to Vanre, three miles from the town, which is a ridge of hills that runs along to the observatory. Here the quarries are open on the side of the hill, as with us. In those I observed two or three layers of stone, two or three foot thick, mostly made up of shells, or stones in the fashion of shells. Amongst these shell-stones the most remarkable for bigness was a certain smooth and long buccinum, tapering with very many spires. I measured one whose first spire was eight inches diameter, the full length I could not so well come at; yet holding proportion with those of the kind which lay flat, and which we could see in their full length, it must have been a foot long at least. There is no buccinum in any of our seas a quarter so big. Here are many of this species. Also other large turbinated stones, which come near some of the West India kinds of music shells, of which genus yet there are none in the European seas. These layers of stone mixed with shell-figured bodies, are at certain distances in the rock, and other rocks void of shells interposed. Fanciful men may think what they please of this matter; sure I am, until the history of nature, and more particularly that of minerals and fossils is better looked into, and more accurately distinguished, all reasoning is in vain. It is to be observed where men are most in the dark, there impudence reigns most, as upon this subject: they are not content fairly to dissent, but to insult every body else. In like manner upon the subject of mineral waters; how many scribblers have there been without any knowledge of fossils? I know not whether it be worth the noting, but it shews the humour of the French, that I saw in some country towns near Paris, the church wall near the top had a two feet broad mourning list, which compassed the whole church like a girdle, and on this was at certain distances, painted the arms of the lord of the manor, who was dead. I shall conclude what I have to say further, with the air of Paris, and the state of health and physic there. The air of Paris is drier than that of England, notwithstanding the greatest part of the city is placed in a dirty miry level; the muddy banks of the river Seine witness this; also the old Latin name of Paris, Lutetia; but some of them are unwilling to derive it from Lutum, though there are several other towns in France, formerly more considerable than it, of that very name; but from the Greek original, as Tolon, Tolousa, which in that language signify black dirt. We have an undoubted experiment of the different temper of the air in our Philosophic Transactions; where it is demonstrated that there falls twice as much rain in England, as at Paris; registers of both having carefully been kept, for so many years, both here and in France. From this quantity of rain with us, our fields are much greener; and it was a pleasing surprise to me at my return, sailing up the river Thames, to see our green fields and pastures on every side; but we pay dearly for it, in agues and coughs, and rheumatic distempers. The winter was very rude and fierce, as was ever known in the memory of man; the cold winds very piercing; and the common people walk the streets all in muffs, and multitudes had little brass kettles of small-coal kindled, hanging on their arms; and yet you should scarce hear any one cough. I never saw a mist at Paris in the six months I staid there, but one; though a very broad river runs through the middle of the city, nor any very strong winds; but this may be accidental, and the temper of some one year by chance. We were very sensible by the 20th of February our style, though the nights were cold, and the white frosts great in the mornings, that the sun at noon had a much stronger force and heat, than with us, at that time of the year. Another argument of the dryness of the air at Paris, we had from the alteration of health; such as were thick breathed, and coughed and spit much, soon recovered; and the insensible perspiration of the skin was so clear and free, that the kidneys had little to do; so that it was observed by most, that though we drank pretty freely of the thin wines of Champagne and Burgundy, yet they never broke our sleep to get shut of them; and that very little passed that way in the morning. Lastly, a sign of the dryness and great goodness of the air of Paris is, the vast number of iron bars all over the city; which yet are mostly entire, and the least decayed with rust, I ever saw in any place; whereas ours in London are all in a few years all over rusty, and miserably eaten. We were sufficiently alarmed at our first coming to Paris, with the unwholesomeness of the river water, and cautioned against drinking it; and yet it was almost impossible to avoid the bad effects of it; for within the month two thirds of the family fell into fluxes, some into dysenteries, and some very ill of it. The French that come out of other remote countries suffer as well as the strangers. We were told boiling it was a good remedy to prevent its griping quality; but that is a mere notion, for we know mineral • waters boiled have a stronger effect, and this quality can proceed from nothing less. The well waters here are much worse than the river waters, because more mineral. But our safety was in the water brought from the Maison des Eaux, where the aqueduct of Arcueil empties itself to serve the great palaces and city fountains. The disease of the dysentery being one of the most common in Paris, the most celebrated drug for its cure is now the ipecacuanha; though I never once made use of it to any of our people, but cured them all as soon, and as well with our usual remedies. Indeed they have great need of it here, for the poorer sort of people, through ill diet, this water, and herbs, are very subject to it; this root is said to cure it with as much certainty, and as readily, as the jesuit's powder an ague; of this most of the physicians and apothecaries agreed. They give it in powder from ten grains to forty, which is the largest dose. It most commonly vomits, and sometimes purges, but both gently. It is sold here from twenty to fifty crowns a pound. They divide it into four sorts, according to its goodness. Another popular disease here is the stone; and there are men well practised in the cutting for it. There are also two hospitals, where great numbers are cut yearly, as La Charite, and Hostel-Dieu, in both of these there are wired chests full of stones cut from human bodies; and in the chest of La Charite is one, which exceeds all belief; it was cut from a monk, who died in the very operation; it is as big as a child's head. It is but the model or pattern of the stone which is kept in the chest; which has this inscription on it : Figure & grosseur de la pierre, pesant 51 ounces, qui font trois livres trois ounces, qui a este tiree dans cet Hospital au mois de Juin 1690, & que l'on conserve dans le Couvent de la Charite. But that which I shall here most insist upon is the new way, practised by Pere Jaques, a monk. About the 20th of April he cut in the Hostel-Dieu ten in less than an hour's time: the third day after, all were hearty and without pain but one. He cuts both by the grand and little appareil; in both he boldly thrusts in a broad lancet or stiletto into the middle of the muscle of the thigh near the anus, till he joins - the catheter or staff, or the stone betwixt his fingers; then he widens the incision of the bladder in proportion to the stone with a silver oval hoop; if that will not do, he thrusts in his four fingers and tears it wider; then with the duck's bill he draws it out. I saw him cut a second time in the Hostel-Dieu; and he performed it upon nine persons in three quarters of an hour, very dexterously. He seemed to venture at all; and put me into some disorder with the cruelty of the operation; and a stouter Englishman than myself. However I visited them all in their beds, and found them more amazed than in pain. Pere Jaques cut also his way in the other hospital La Charite, much about the same time, eleven at twice. Here Monsieur Marshal, the best of the surgeons for this operation now in Paris, harangued against him before the governors, who coldly answered, they would be determined by the event, which way was best. Atque hac ratione Fæminis Calculi omnium facillime exciduntur; nempe scalpello intra vaginam uteri in vesicam adacto. Of those cut in La Charite one died; and being dissected, it was found he had his bladder pierced in four or five places; also the musculus psous sadly mangled; also the left vesiculæ seminales cut. Notwithstanding this, if this method was well executed by a skilful hand, it might be of good use to mankind. This way of cutting for the stone, puts me in mind of what I formerly wrote and published in the Phil. Transactions, about cutting above the os pubis, in the fund of the bladder. Also of that experiment of cutting for the stone of an alderman at Doncaster in the gluteus major, he was twice cut in the same place, and out-lived both. I saw the first stone, which was very large, and in some measure transparent, crystal like. This experiment is printed in Dr. Willes's Scarborough Spaw, fourteen years ago at least, and is a fair hint for this new method. Since my return I had a letter from Mr. Probie, a very learned and industrious young gentlemen, who was with me to see the operation, that part relating to this matter I shall here transcribe. Indeed, I mightily longed for an account of this matter, the success of which I came away too soon to learn any thing for certain. Paris, Aug. 2, 98. "PERE JAQUES' reputation mightily slackens, out of forty-five that he cut at the Hostel-Dieu, but sixteen of them survive; and of nineteen in the Charite, but eleven. He has practised at the hospital at Lyons, but, it is said, with worse success than at Paris. I am sensible he has got abundance of enemies, which makes me very often question, what I may hear said of him. Dr. Fagon, the king's physician, told Dr. Tournefort, when he went to present his book to him, that he had cut seven at Versailles, and that six of them are alive, and as well as if never cut. The person that died was so distempered, that he was not expected to live, and it was thought, if he had not been cut, he had not lived so long: the surgeons have a great mind to cry down the man, though they practise his method. For Marshal has since cut after Pere Jaques' manner, only with this difference, that Marshal's cathether was cannulated. Le Rue, the second surgeon of the Charity hospital cut after the old manner, at the same time when Marshal cut Pere Jaques' way, but had not so good success as Marshal had; for all that Marshal cut are alive and very well, whereas the other lost one or two of his number; besides, those that lived were not so soon cured, no, not by a month or six weeks." Thus far Mr. Probie. The pox here is the great business of the town; a disease which in some measure hath contributed to the ruin of physic here, as in London. This secret service hath introduced little contemptible animals of all sorts into business, and hath given them occasion to insult families, after they had once the knowledge of these misfortunes. And it is for this reason the quacks here, as with us, do thrive vastly into great riches beyond any of the physicians, by treating privately these calamities. It was a pleasant diversion to me to read upon the walls every where about the town, but more particularly in the Fauxbourgh of St. Germain, the quacks' bills printed in great uncial letters. As, De par l'ordre du Roy. Remede infallible & commode pour la gerison des maladies secretes sans garder la chambre. Another, Par permission de Roy. Manniere tres aisee & tres sure pour guerir sans incommodite, & sans que persone en appercoive, les maladies veneriennes, &c. Another, Par privilege du Roy. L'Antivenerien de medicin Indien, pour toutes les maladies veneriennes, telles quelles puissent estre, sans aucun retour, & sans garder la chambre. Il est tres commode & le plus agreable de monde. Another, Remede assure de Sieur de la Brune privilege du Roy, &c. sans qu'on soit contraint de garder la chambre, &c. garder By these bills it is evident, there is yet a certain modesty and decorum left in the concealing this disease, even amongst the French: they would be cured secretly, and as though nothing were doing; which those wretches highly promise. But this is that handle which gives those mean people an occasion to insult their reputation, and injure them in their health for ever. Every body here puts their helping hand, and meddles with the cure of this disease, as apothecaries, barbers, women, and monks; yet I did not find by all the inquiry I could make, that they had other remedies than we. Nay, there is something practised in the cure of this distemper in England, which they at Paris know nothing of; but this old verse forbids me to say any thing further : Artem pudere proloqui, quam factites. The apothecaries' shops are neat enough, if they were but as well stored with medicines; and some are very finely adorned, and have an air of greatness, as that of Monsieur Geofferie, who has been provost des merchands, in the Rue Burtebur, where the entry to the Basse Cour is a port-cochier, with vasas of copper in the niches of the windows; within are rooms adorned with huge vasas and mortars of brass, as well for sight, as for use. The drugs and compositions are kept in cabinets disposed round the room. Also laboratories backwards in great perfection and neatness. I must needs commend this gentleman for his civility towards me; and for his care in educating his son, who came over with count Tallard, a most hopeful and learned young man; whom our society at Gresham-college, at my request, honoured with admitting him fellow, according to his deserts. I had the opportunity of conversing with many of the physicians in this city; who all agree in the low condition and disesteem it was in, from the boundless confidence and intruding of quacks, women, and monks. Monsieur d'Achin, the late chief physician, has been ill thought on for taking money, and giving protection to these sort of cattle: but the chief physician now, Monsieur Fagon, is a man of great honour and learning, and very desirous to promote the art. It is here as with us, some practise out of mere vanity, others to make a penny any way to get bread. The cause of all this is, I think, the great confidence people have of their own skill, an arrogance without thinking. To pass a judgment upon cures, and the good and evil practice of physic, without doubt is one of the nicest things, even to men of the faculty; but a jury, that is, the very ordinary men in England, are suffered now to undertake the question; when I may truly say, that I have ever found, no disparagement to them, the most learned men of the nation, the most mistaken in these matters; and can it be otherwise in so conjectural an art, when we ourselves scarce know, when we have done ill or well. Another cause of the low esteem of physic here, are the sorry fees that are given to physicians: which makes that science not worth the application and study. The king indeed is very liberal, as in all things else, in his pensions to his chief physician, and gives his children good preferments. Also Mr. Burdelot, who is also well pensioned, and lodged at Versailles, physician to the duchess of Burgundy, a learned man; he is perfectly well skilled in the history of physic; and we may shortly (as he told me) expect from him, another supplement to Vauder Linden, of many thousand volumes, which have escaped that catalogue, and are not accounted for. Monsieur, and the dauphin, and all the princes of the blood, have their domestic physicians; some of whom I knew, as Monsieur Arlot, Monsieur Minot, to the prince of Conti, of my acquaintance formerly at Montpellier. The two Morins very learned men; also Monsieur Grimodet, &c. Others have the practice of nunneries and convents, which gives them bread; others have parishes; and some such shifts they make; but all is wrong with them, and very little encouragement given to the faculty. April 14. The prince of Conti sent his gentleman and coach at midnight to fetch me to his son, and to bring with me the late king Charles's drops to give him. This was a very hasty call. I told the messenger, I was the prince's very humble servant ; but for any drops or other medicines I had brought nothing at all with me, and had used only such as I found in their shops, for all the occasions I had to use any. I desired he would tell him, that I was ready to consult with his physicians upon his son's sickness, if he pleased to command me, but for coming upon any other account I desired to be excused; but I heard no more of the matter, and the young prince died. By this it is evident, there is as false a notion of physic in this country, as with us; and that it is here also thought a knack, more than a science or method; and little chemical toys, the bijous of quacks, are mightily in request. This heresy hath possessed the most thinking, as well as the ignorant part of mankind; and for this we are beholden to the late vain expositors of nature, who have mightily inveighed against and undervalued the ancient Greek physicians in whose works only this art is to be learnt, unless single persons could live over as many ages, as those wise men did. |