Reputation of this sort is very hard to be got, and very easy to be lost; its pursuit is painful, and its possession unfruitful: nor had I ever attempted any thing in this kind, till finding the animosities among the members of the College of Physicians increasing daily (notwithstanding the frequent exhortations of our worthy President* to the contrary) I was persuaded to attempt something of this nature, and to endeavour to rally some of our disaffected members into a sense of their duty, who have hitherto most obstinately opposed all manner of union; and have continued so unreasonably refractory, that it was thought fit by the College, to reinforce the observance of the statutes by a bond, which some of them would not comply with, though none of them had refused the ceremony of the customary oath; like some that will trust their wives with any body, but their money with none. I was sorry to find there could be any constitution that was not to be cured without poison, and that there should be a prospect of affecting it by a less grateful method than reason and persuasion. The original of this difference has been of some standing; though it did not break out to fury and excess till the time of erecting the DISPENSARY; being an apartment in the College set up for the relief of the sick poor, and managed ever since with an integrity and disinterest, suitable to so charitable a design. If any person would be more fully informed about the particulars of so pious a work, I refer him to a treatise, set forth by the authority of the • Dr. Millington. President and Censors, in the year 1697: it is called, 'A short Account of the Proceedings of the College of Physicians, London, in relation to the Sick Poor.' The reader may there not only be informed of the rise and progress of this so public an undertaking, but also of the concurrence and encouragement it met with from the most, as well as the most ancient members of the society; notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of a few men, who thought it their interest to defeat so laudable a design. The intention of this preface is not to persuade mankind to enter into our quarrels, but to vindicate the author from being censured of taking any indecent liberty with a faculty he has the honour to be a member of. If the satire may appear directed at any particular person, it is at such only as are presumed to be engaged in dishonourable confederacies for mean and mercenary ends, against the dignity of their own profession. But if there be no such, then these characters are but imaginary, and by consequence ought to give no body offence. The description of the battle is grounded upon a feud that happened in the DISPENSARY, betwixt a member of the College with his retinue, and some of the servants that attended there to dispense the medicines; and is so far real, though the poetical relation be fictitious. I hope no body will think the author too undecently reflecting through the whole, who, being too liable to faults himself, ought to be less severe upon the miscarriages of others. There is a character in this trivial performance, which the town, I find, applies to a particular person it is a reflection which I should be sorry should give offence; being no more than what may be said of any physician remarkable for much practice. The killing of numbers of patients is so trite a piece of raillery, that it ought not to make the least impression, either upon the reader, or the person it is applied to ; being one, that I think in my conscience a very able physician, as well as a gentleman of extraordinary learning. If I am hard upon any one, it is my reader: but some worthy gentlemen, as remarkable for their humanity as their extraordinary parts, have taken care to make him amends for it, by prefixing something of their own. I confess, those ingenious gentlemen have done me a great honour; but while they design an imaginary panegyric upon me, they have made a real one upon themselves; and by saying how much this small performance exceeds some others, they convince the world how far it falls short of theirs. 242 THE COPY OF AN INSTRUMENT SUBSCRIBED BY THE PRESIDENT, CENSOR, MOST OF THE ELECTS, SENIOR FELLOWS, CANDIDATES, &c. of THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, IN RELATION TO THE SICK POOR. WHEREAS the several orders of the College of Physicians, London, for prescribing medicines gratis to the poor sick of the cities of London and Westminster, and parts adjacent, as also proposals made by the said College to the Lord Mayor, Court of Aldermen, and Common Council of London, in pursuance thereof, have hitherto been ineffectual; for that no method hath been taken to furnish the poor with medicines for their cure at low and rea sonable rates; we, therefore, whose names are here underwritten, Fellows and Members of the said College, being willing effectually to promote so great a charity, by the counsel and good liking of the President and College declared in their Comitia, hereby (to wit, each of us severally and apart, and not the one for the other of us) do oblige ourselves to pay to Dr. Thomas Burwell, Fellow and Elect of the said College, the sum of ten pounds apiece of lawful money of England, by such proportions, and at such times, as to the major part of the subscribers here shall seem most convenient: which money, when received by the said Dr. Thomas Burwell, is to be by him expended in preparing and delivering medicines to the poor at their intrinsic value, in such manner, and at such times, and by such orders and directions, as by the major part of the subscribers hereto shall in writing be hereafter appointed and directed for that purpose. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this twenty-second day of December, 1696. Tho. Millington, Preses. Censor. Sam. Collins, Elect. Rich. Torless, Elect. and Censor. Edw. Hulse, Elect. John Bateman. Henry Sampson. Thomas Gibson. Barnh. Soame. Oliver Horseman. J. Le Feure. |
