Nature the best physician: a matter of fact, evinced from a most remarkable variolous case, communicated by the learned Dr. Wilmot to the Late Dr. Mead. And now set forth in a poetical narrative / [David Maxwell].

Maxwell, David

Date:: [1756]

Credit: Nature the best physician: a matter of fact, evinced from a most remarkable variolous case, communicated by the learned Dr. Wilmot to the Late Dr. Mead. And now set forth in a poetical narrative / [David Maxwell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$* IV DEDICATION. Or, in the Quarters of the Eaft, In all his Rifing Glories dreft, He ftreak the Morn with heav’nly Red, f O Keep, O Keep the Sick in Bed! Keep him in Bed, when now a Veil Is caff no longer o’er the Ail. a Whoe’er Thou art, that read’ll; this Verfe,] The Ad¬ vice, our Poetical Author feems to a no fmall Degree to labour with, he ufhers into the world with great Pomp and Solemni¬ ty, and by that means very artfully befpeaks the Reader’s Attention to the Precept, And, in reality, I am at a lofs in this place which more to admire in him, his Poetic or Phy- iical Powers and Sagacity. b Learn’d Divine,] There are Certain of the Spanish Clergy, who devote themfelves very much to the Study of Physick, from a Motive of interedmg themfelves, where They may chance to be planted, in the Cure of luch Sick, as may be either very neceflitous, and coniequently unable to Fee a Phyfician, or elfe may be fo remote from Help, as to be Half-dead before the Phyfician can reach them. Hence it is, that De Vega links the Divine, in this place, to the Doctor and Sagacious Nurse. c Nurfe,] Sagax Nutrix, fays the Text. Nurfes in Spain, particularly Thofe, who, from a natural Sagacity, are in- titled to the Epithet with which our Author here accods them, have procured to themfelves a great Veneration, not only among the Lower Clafs of People, but even among Perfonages of High Rank and Didinftion, a Good Nurfe being univer¬ sally concluded in that Kingdom to be a Good Thing. . Hence it is no Wonder, that our Doctor fliould lug them in head and fhoulders, in this Paffage, along with Physick and Divinity ; which he might be alfo induced to do from a Confcioufnefs, perhaps, of their Merit and Importance in thefe direful Didempers, and of the grand Confequence it mull neceffarily be to the Public, (from their being frequently inaugurated whole and foie Managers and Condudfers in thele Illnefies) to have them Compleatly and, in a iuperlative De¬ gree, Phylically indruTted. Nor are they, when of any Emi¬ nence, treated among us with any other than with Medical Marks of Didin&ion. And, in reality, They are a Kind of She-Phyficians, the Diaetetic, which Province is generally condgned to thefe Hippocratic Matrons, being as much a Part of the Science, as any other. And we had fome \ears ago$

Nature the best physician: a matter of fact, evinced from a most remarkable variolous case, communicated by the learned Dr. Wilmot to the Late Dr. Mead. And now set forth in a poetical narrative / [David Maxwell].

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