A METHOD of Studying PHYSIC in a private Manner: By which means a Gentleman, with the Purchase of a Diploma, may turn out DOCTOR, as well as if he went to PADUA, to bear MORGANNI.

HE firft books I got upon my table,

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were the lexicons of Caftellus and Quincy; one for the explication of antient terms; and the other of modern. Thefe, as Dic tionaries, lay at hand for ufe, when wanted,

I then opened the laft edition of Schel bammer's Herman Conringius's Introductio in univerfam artem medicam, fingulafque ejus partes; I fay the last edition, 1726, because that has an excellent preface by Hoffman. This book, which comes down to the beginning of the 17th century, I read with great care; efpecially Gonthier Christopher Schelhammer's notes, and additions, which have enriched the work very much. (By the way, they were both very great men, and bright ornaments to their profeffion, They writ an amazing number of books on medicine. Conringius died December 1681, aged 75. Schelhammer, in January 1716, in the 67th year of his age.)

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The next introductory book to the art, was Lindenius renovatus de fcriptis medicis, quibus præmittitur manuductio ad medicinam. This book was firft called Libro duo de fcripturis, &c. and written by Vander Linden, a famous Leyden profeffor, who published it in the year 1637, in a small octavo. In the fame form it was printed in 1651 and 1662: these three editions at Amfterdam: But the valuable edition is that of Nuremberg, 1686, by George Abraham Merklinus,, who made yery many and excellent additions to this fourth edition, and called it Lindenius renovatus, as he had augmented it to a vaft 4to. John Antonides Vander Linden died in March 1664, aged 55. And Merklinus in April 1702, in the 58th year of his age. They both writ many books in phyfic: but there have been fuch improvements made by the diligence and fuccefs of modern phyficians, that it would be only lofs of time to read over all their works, or all the authors of the 17th century.

The next books I opened, were the learned Daniel Le Clerc's history of phyfic, which commences with the world, and ends. at the time of Galen; and the great Dr. Friend's hiftory, which is a continuation of Le Clerc, down to Linacre, the founder of

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the College of Phyficians, in the reign of Henry VIII.-Thefe books fhewed me the origin and revolutions of phyfic, and the antient writers and their works on this fubject. By the way, Daniel Le Clerc died in June 1728, aged 76, and fome months.

When I had read these things,* I turned next to botany, and read Raii Methodus plantarum emendata, Londini 1703. Raii Synopfis methodica ftirpium, Ed. 3. And Tournefort's Inftitutiones rei herbaria. These books with à few obfervations of my own, as I walked in the gardens, the fields, and on the plains, furnished me with fufficient knowledge of this kind for the present. The vaft folios on this fubject are not for beginners.

Chemistry was the next thing my director bid me look into, and to this purpose I perused Boerhaave's Elementa chemia, and Hoffman's Obfervationes phyfico-chemia: Thefe afford as much chemistry as a young physician need fet out with: but as books alone give but an imperfect conception, I

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* If Mangetus had published his Bibliotheca fcriptorum medicorum, 2 vols. folio, at the time I am ipeaking of, the Doctor, my friend, would have recom mended it to a beginner.

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performed most of the common operations in the portable furnace of Becher.

The materia medica in the next place had my attention, that is, thofe animal, vegetable, and foffil substances, which are used to prevent, cure, or palliate diseases. And in order to know the names of all the drugs, their hiftory, the adulterations they are fubject to, their virtues, their dofe, their manner of using them, and the cautions which they require, to get a fufficient knowledge of this kind, I looked into Geoffrey's materia medica, and made a collection of the materia at the fame time, that I might conceive and remember what I read.

Pharmacy, or the art of preparing and compounding medicines, was the next thing I endeavoured to be a master of. And that I might know how to exalt their virtues, to obviate their ill qualities, and to make them lefs nauseous, I read to this purpose, Quincy's pharmaceutical lectures and difpenfatory and took care to be well verfed in all the pharmacopeia's, thofe of London, Edinburgh, Paris, Boerhaave, Bate, and Fuller. And I read very carefully Gaubin's methodus præfcribendi. This gave me the materials, and taught me the form of prescribing.

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Anatomy

Anatomy I ftudied next, that is, the art of dividing the feveral parts of a body, fo as to know their fize, figure, fituation, connexions, and make. I began with Drake and Keil, and then read over Winflow. I had likewife open before me at the fame time, at my entrance upon this study, a good set of plates, the tables of Eustachius and Cooper, and turned them carefully over as I read. The doctor then fhewed me how to diffect, but chiefly by the direction of a book called the Culter Anatomicus of Michel Lyferus, ou methode courte, facile, & claire de diffequer les corps hu maines. I was foon able to perform myfelf. It was the third edition of Lyferus, 1679; which has many curious anatomical obfervations added to it by Gafpard Bartholin, the fon of the celebrated Thomas Bartholin, Copenhagen profeffor. (Michel Lyfére was the difciple of the great Thomas Bartholin. Thomas died, December 1680, in his 64th year. Michel in 1659,) a young man; regretté à caufe de fon merite. had alfo Nichol's Compendium, and Hunter's Compendium. By thefe means, and by reading the authors who have written upon fome one part only; fuch as. Peyerus de glandulis inteftinus. Experimenta circa pancras. De Graaf de organis generationis. Gafp. Bartholin de diaphragm. Malpigius de

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