The Origin of Medicine

TO THE READER

...so that this might better succeed, the aforementioned heir had to be removed from our midst, lest he obstruct our undertaking. All of this may be freely perpetrated without sin, since we can demonstrate and confirm these actions by the accepted use and doctrine of many celebrated writers of a certain predominant Order This likely refers to a powerful religious or academic society that provided moral justification for the guild's actions.. Having finished these remarks, he asked the primary Doctor following him to likewise strive with all his might to subvert the opposing doctrine and preserve the profitable one; to which he, the second in rank, complied.

He was, in other respects, an upright and sincere man, who had secretly recalled many miserable souls from the underworld original: "orco"; a poetic reference to death or the grave by his integrity. With this integrity, he corrected—whenever the opportunity was granted—the formulas of remedies, reducing the quantity and violence of the treatments prescribed by his aforementioned colleagues. This man was also highly skilled, and he awaited the coming arrival of Elias the Artist original: "Eliæ Artiſtæ"; in alchemical tradition, a messianic figure expected to appear and reveal the secrets of the "Great Work" and the true nature of medicine., whom he longed for desperately. He had learned of him many years ago from one of the brothers devoted to his Profession; otherwise, he was powerful in reason and firm in health—a man who, when dying, seemed to know something beyond the common lot of men.

Once, before his death, he went to minister to the poor for free out of charity, performing many works of mercy in Hospitals original: "Noſocomiis" and Prisons, until he contracted the common disease. This soon brought his fellow Professors to him, who exulted to test upon him the fruits of their professed theory: these men, having held the usual Consultation, drew his blood in large amounts, administered Purgatives original: "Cathartica"; harsh medicines used to induce vomiting or bowel movements, then believed to "cleanse" the body., and thus completely destroyed his strength.

But it happened conveniently that his remaining vigor and his youth overcame the disease: it appeared he had regained his lost strength, by which it was confirmed to him that the Professors and Licentiates were true Physicians. He considered, based on their reports, that he had deserved death and owed his life to their torments The narrator uses "torments" ironically to describe the painful medical treatments of the 17th century.; hence they carried off a double reward, though not according to their merits. The young man, returning to his former pious path, was oppressed a second time by the same evil, and by their work he hoped to escape the same butchery original: "carnicinam" again. But, alas, his spirit failed him, and with sound reason and knowledge of the truth, he cried out to this brother of his:

“It is finished with me, as with every individual; and it will last as long as these so-called Physicians truly feel and see this present state for eternity. But now they forget the past, believing they possess the present; they deny the future when they cannot see it, and thus they take no care for a longer life. For they were never deprived of it, like some other fleeting good that can be repaired; but possessing only a single life and losing it, all will be over. It is a vain thing to apply oneself to studies when no necessity presses. The servant is conquered, who ought to serve us, perpetually calling out with all his qualities; he who names this man his Master will unknowingly be his slave original: "mancipium", although all...”