Part 8

Let us now enquire a little into the Nature of the Apothecary’s Business, and see of what Use he is to Mankind. Pharmacy, the Apothecary’s Art, is branch’d out of Physic; for as now the Apothecary sometimes prescribes, so originally the Physician was Apothecary too. An Apothecary’s Education is not so deep, nor his Application to Study usually so close, as the Physician’s: yet as Genius is not confined to the Physician, but is by Nature as capable of residing in the Apothecary; some Degree of Learning, an Acquaintance with proper Books, which are equally open to both, and constant Observation on Diseases, will certainly furnish him with a considerable Stock of useful Knowledge. Experience is the Mother of Wisdom. While the Physician is labouring at Theories, the Apothecary is perhaps deeply immers’d in Practice: and as all allow that nice Observation is of vast Use in Physic, while the one is searching into Causes, the other, if he improves as he ought the Opportunities he is furnished with, gains a Knowledge of Effects. Hence it appears, that an Apothecary is capable of being, not merely an useful, but a valuable Man to Society; and perhaps equally so, both to Patient and Physician. Physicians could not keep up their Dignity, nor act with Safety without this Medium. Who is it they confide in that the Drugs are good, and the Letter of the Prescription faithfully adhered to, but the Apothecary? Who is it that gives the Patient that close Attendance he frequently wants, but the Apothecary? Who is it that has the Trouble of applying Leeches, of applying and dressing Blisters, of administering Vomits, _&c._ of watching the various Changes that arise, and of running in Pursuit of the Doctor to check some threatening Symptom, but the Apothecary? And who is it, in fine, that on every Emergency, in every real or fancied Danger, is called out of his Bed to administer some speedy Relief, or appease some groundless Fears of the Patient, or their Friends, but the Apothecary? Still all this, tho’ literally true, tho’ it proves the Apothecary (where a good one) to have some real Importance, yet it does not put him upon a Level with the Physician, much less justify the shutting him out from Practice. Those who deny that Apothecaries can sometimes cure Diseases, flatly contradict what every Day’s Experience proves; and those, who, to magnify them, depreciate the Physicians, are guilty of an Injustice, which can have no other Source than Ignorance, or an evil Mind: for, to put Things upon a fair Footing, the Apothecary should be considered as an Auxiliary; or, as I have before expressed it, a necessary Medium between Physician and Patient.

Health is a nice Affair; and Life precious to every Individual. The best Advice then I can give to Parents is, that they do not, where these are at Stake, hazard either one or the other by Indolence, or an ill-tim’d Frugality. Those who are rich, let them at once send for the Physician, especially if it be a Matter of Moment; and surely Prudence points out this to us: so those who cannot reach the best, let them take the next best; that is, where calling in a Physician would too sensibly affect their Circumstances, Prudence demands, that they employ a good Apothecary. And even these, tho’ they consult their Apothecary first, should strain a Point where Danger threatens; and neither attach themselves too closely to the Man who is fond of his own Judgment, nor condemn another’s Tenderness in proposing farther Advice. But I may on this Point say farther, that it is sometimes the greatest Proof of Wisdom in an Apothecary to desire the Advice of a Physician; for tho’ Diligence, Integrity, and many other Qualifications are highly necessary in this Profession, yet none is equal to that Penetration, which gives him the Power of seeing Danger before it is too late to apply a Remedy.

As for the Calumnies, the Sneers, and the Misrepresentations of ignorant or designing People, such as Apothecaries and Physicians being in league together, and playing into one another’s Hands; the Eleven-pence in the Shilling; the cramming People with Physic they do not want; and much more of the like Nature; these are things that scarcely deserve any Notice. I have now been above thirty Years in the Business; have seen and done far from an inconsiderable Share; have attended with Physicians of every Rank, from those who first enter’d into Practice up to those who have reach’d the Summit; yet cannot charge either any single Physician, or myself, with even an Attempt to enter into an Association to the Prejudice of Mankind. On the contrary, I have seen some who have laboured with disinterested Zeal for their Benefit; not merely because they could not have their Fees, but because they would not take them. Here I cannot help observing how much the World is misled by Appearances; because People see an Apothecary with a good Suit of Cloaths on, they conclude he is above Want; and because they see another in a Chariot, they pronounce him rich: so too because a very few Physicians make Fortunes, they conclude, that all of the Profession are Wealthy. But how fallacious is all this! There is no Profession, no Trade in the Kingdom which we call genteel, that has so few rich Men in it as the different Branches of Physic. Many a Man in it, sensible that the World would have no Opinion of his Skill, if he appeared to Disadvantage, keeps up a Port with aching Heart; many a Chariot is in daily Danger of breaking down; and many owe their Stability more to their own Patrimony, to their Wives Portion, or some other fortunate Event, than to the Produce of their Business.

Two Things with respect to Sickness Parents are to guard against; one is, the Neglect of calling for Help in time; the other, that amazing Attachment to Nurses, and what they call good old Women. I esteem it a Misfortune in a Family, where a Physician or an Apothecary appears as regularly as the Baker; and to prove that I do so, I have said before, that our Food may often be made our Physic; and have pointed out many Ways to prevent Diseases: still it is a Fact, that all Errors are best rectified at the Beginning; and the sooner a Distemper is attacked, the sooner, in all Probability, will it be conquered. Good Women are extremely apt to treat physical People with Contempt; and this chiefly to magnify their own Skill. If they have any Knowledge, as some of them doubtless have, to whom principally do they owe it? Is it not from conversing with physical People, and seeing how they proceed? most certainly. And yet these same good Women shall wonder that any body sends for a Doctor or an Apothecary to a sick Child! What, they cry, do these People know about Children? A good old Woman is better than all of them. She must be a very good old Woman indeed, that knows more than Men who have made the Knowledge of Diseases the whole Study of their Lives. But supposing that Reason and Resolution get the better of this Weakness; Parents have still more to do; it is not enough that Medicines are prescribed, they must be sure that they are taken. For besides the Repugnance in the Child, there is a Difficulty perhaps in the Nurse; and if she thinks it wrong, it will be hard to set her right; and harder still, to prevail on her to give them to the Patient. Parents, in this Case, must either resolve not to ask Advice, or resolve to see the Medicines taken.

Nurses have a Province of their own, in which they are very valuable, that is, a diligent attentive Care; for in vain do Parents seek Advice, in vain do Physicians prescribe, if Nurses are negligent, unwatchful, or careless. But while I do them the Justice they deserve, while I acknowledge the Merit of their Station, and recommend that it be rewarded, I cannot help repeating to Parents, not to suffer them to baffle superior Knowledge. If any Change happens to the Patient, or a Difficulty arises unforeseen, let them suspend for a Time the Execution of the Orders given them; but let them not frustrate the Physician’s Intention, by throwing Medicines away, giving them by Halves, or giving something of their own added to it, or in it’s stead; and then concealing what they have done: all these things are grievously wrong, and every way unjustifiable, as they frequently disappoint the Patient, or disgrace the Physician. If a Nurse has made any useful Observation on the Patient (which all good Nurses sometimes will) there is not a Doctor in the Kingdom, if a Man of Sense, but will hear her, and turn it to Advantage; but if her Conceit leads her to set aside or overturn what is proposed, however merry it may make herself, every thinking Person in the World must condemn so capital an Error.

The last Caution I shall give to Parents relative to Health, is, the Danger of Nostrums and Quack-Medicines. I believe there is not a Physician nor an Apothecary in the Kingdom but what has seen the Lives of People, particularly of Children, sacrificed to this Practice. What is it that constitutes the Physician, that proves the Man of Judgment, but the varying his Prescriptions, not only according to different Diseases, but according to the different Circumstances of the same Disease? And yet these Nostrum-Mongers, with unparalell’d Boldness, often attempt to conquer all Diseases with one Arcanum, one pretended Remedy. Who that hears these Boasters, or that reads their printed Accounts, but must discover many Absurdities on the very Face of them. The Man that promises what is repugnant to common Sense, argues himself either a Knave or a Fool; and yet People are often so little attentive, or so regardless of Health, that they do not discover their Error, ’till it is sometimes too late to remedy it. That I may do strict Justice to every one, I am ready to grant, that many Discoveries have been made in Medicine by mere Accident; and that some of the Nostrums in Vogue are in themselves good; nay some of them were the Discoveries of able Physicians; Discoveries since seiz’d on by designing People, and pirated into a kind of Property. But what does all this avail in the Hands of ignorant People? What is a Man the wiser for being placed in a Repository of the finest Drugs, if he knows not how to apply them? Or wherein does he differ from one set in a Library of the choicest Books, without being able to read? Yet are People every Day vending Things, which they know not the Nature nor Use of; and so far impose on the weak and credulous, as often to make a Fortune at others Cost.

Opium, Mercury, and all the powerful Drugs, are every Day scattered about the Kingdom, and indiscriminately offered to all, whether they want them or not, whether they are good for them or not; and the specious Terms they are recommended in are apt to mislead, not merely innocent, but very sensible People. Since then Things are so, Parents must be very wary how they touch such dangerous Weapons. ’Tis great Odds but they mistake their Child’s Disorder; ’tis great Odds that the random Medicine they give is not suited to it; and how will they reconcile it to themselves if any fatal Consequence ensues? Upon the Whole, as a Friend to Mankind, independent of any private Interest, as one who aims at the Benefit of Society, and wishes to preserve the rising Generation, I cannot but advise Parents to be tender, circumspect, and judicious, in so important a Matter as their Children’s Health. When they are well, let them use every prudent Means to keep them so; if they are ill, let them ask good Advice; by which Means they will often save their Children’s Lives: and even where a Miscarriage happens, their Prudence and Justice will be attended with this Consolation, that they have done their best.

MANNERS.

Manners comes next under my Consideration: it implies such a Government of our Children as tends to regulate their Conduct, by making their Actions what they ought to be. And though Health has been treated first, from it’s being generally thought the most immediately necessary, yet if this Regulation, this due Government does not accompany every Endeavour to preserve their Children’s Health, Parents will often be disappointed, and find their Labour fruitless.

The Basis of Government is Authority: without that, in vain do we expect any Order in our Children, any Happiness to ourselves. Cities, Armies, Kingdoms, all are sustain’d by it: and so too must private Families be. By Authority I do not mean that stern Brow, that trembling awful Distance, nor that Bashaw-like Behaviour, which favours more of the Tyrant than of the Parent; no: I mean a rational, yet absolute Exercise of a Degree of Power, necessary for the regulating the Actions and Dispositions of Children, ’till they become wise enough to govern themselves. But because some Children attain this necessary Knowledge sooner than others, and one Child will be better able to conduct itself at fifteen, than another at twenty, or even thirty; there is but one general way of ascertaining the length of Time our Authority should be exercised in it’s full Force; which is that settled by the Laws of our Kingdom; viz. ’till the Age of twenty-one. And if we can once seriously resolve to employ this Term so critical to Children, solely to their Advantage, Authority will thenceforward become useless: it’s Terrors will vanish, and be wholly absorbed in the united Considerations of the Parent, the Friend, and the Companion: in a Word, our Children well conducted to this Age will afterwards take as much Pains to make us happy, as we have done to make them wise. But to proceed.

As soon as a Child discovers the first Dispositions to Perversity and Self-will (which as sure as it is born it will too soon begin to do) I advise most earnestly that it be attended to; for much depends upon it. Here I must caution my Fair Readers in particular, not to suspect me of Cruelty; since the Pains I am taking is intended to prevent the Necessity of using any Severity during our whole Lives. But what! you’ll say, should a Child be corrected before it can speak? I answer, that the first Principle in human Nature is Self-love; Reason, the second Principle, opens only by degrees. Now as soon as the Passions of Children shew themselves, they should certainly be checked: and as the Fear of Chastisement is included in Self-love, it is easy to turn this to their Advantage, ’till Reason shall have gained so much Strength as to render it unnecessary: no one can absolutely fix the Time, but within the Year most Parents will find a Necessity to begin; and before half the first Septenary is past much may be done.

In the Government of Children Parents should be obstinately good; that is, set out upon right Principles, and then pursue them with Spirit and Resolution: otherwise their Children will soon grow too cunning for them, and take the Advantage of their Weakness.

Severe and frequent Whipping is I think a very bad Practice; it inflames the Skin, it puts the Blood into a Ferment, and there is besides, a Meanness, a degree of Ignominy attending it, which makes it very unbecoming: still there may be Occasions which will render it necessary; but I earnestly advise that all the milder Methods be first try’d. A coarse clamorous manner of enforcing Obedience is also to be avoided; it is vulgar, and nothing vulgar should be seen in the Behaviour of Parents to their Children, because through the Eyes and Ears it taints their tender Minds: still, let Parents make their Children both see and feel the Power they have over them.

If a Child is passionate and wilful, a Look, or a little Tap on the Hand, will, without hurting it, sometimes suffice to convince it that it is doing wrong; and will often cure the Fault, or at least keep it under. A Child, in a perverse Mood, throws down it’s Play-things; if they are taken up fifty times successively, they are still thrown down as long as the Spirit of Contradiction lasts: now the Remedy here should be to take them away; or by a serious Countenance shew you are displeased; and the Child will very probably not only soon be quiet, but be less prone to do the like another Time. I have seen Children that could not speak, distinguish perfectly those who were disposed to spoil them, from those who were not; scratch Faces, break China, and play the tyrant over all who humour’d them, and yet not offer to lift a Finger against those who did not. By all means let Children be play’d with, and have every Amusement; but great care must be taken to distinguish Play from Mischief; innocent Freedom, from a growing Perversity.

The Humours even of Infants are innumerably various. One Child will not sleep but on a Lap; another there is no Peace with unless rock’d in a Cradle; a third will cry when a Candle is taken away; and to shew us why it cry’d, it is quiet the Moment it is brought back again; a fourth will swill Tea or some other improper Liquor out of measure and out of time; and a fifth will eat Trash ’till it can eat nothing else, nor that itself. In these Cases I advise Parents to consider if their Children are acting for themselves, or they for their Children: one Grain of Judgment will set them right; one Minute’s Reflection will shew them their Error; but, when they once see it they must resolve to avoid it for the future. I call’d some time ago on a Friend, and took a Family Dinner; when to my great Astonishment I saw little Master, not yet a Year old, drinking Porter. What, said I, do you give the Child strong Drink? Oh! Sir, reply’d Mamma, he’ll drink nothing else. Now is not the Fault of such Proceeding obvious? and is not the Remedy as obvious? Parents surely cannot be so blind as not to see their Children’s Health impair’d, and their Humours strengthen’d, by this misplac’d Indulgence; and all for want of a little Resolution, a gentle Correction, or a seasonable Reprimand; nay perhaps only a Look; which given with an authoritative Air, would often have the desired Effect. Constant Experience proves how wrong, nay how ineffectual, the opposite Practice to this is; those who give a Child every thing it cries or asks for, strengthen indeed its Wilfulness, but are far from making it happy. How many improper Things are there which Parents give a Child because they cannot quiet it? Who has not seen a Picture, a Book, a Watch, and other valuable things exposed to be destroyed by it through this mistaken Management? But surely it is right that even among the Baubles contrived on purpose, the Parents, not the Child, should have the Command of them; that is, they should be given or taken away at Discretion; and this without Passion or Ill-nature on one Side, and without Clamour or Fretfulness on the other. Parents should every Day more and more convince their Children of their Power over them, by restraining their little Irregularities, and by weakening their Passions; now this they cannot do without an early Attention to their various Dispositions and Tempers; that they may thence learn what Propensity is strongest, what Foible is most predominant.

Nature, ’tis true, is not alike bountiful to all; nor does she give the same Propensity, the same Temper to all. One Child is born with sweet and mild Dispositions; another more sanguine, and full of Fire; a third has a Redundance of Acrimony; and so on: yet different Tempers are sometimes a kindness bestow’d on us by Nature, on purpose for us to act some certain Part on the great Stage of Life. It is therefore the Parents Business to watch the Temper of their Children; to check any evil Tendency, any ill Dispositions, and prevent every Excess from growing into a Habit; nay more, to change the bad Humour into a good one; as Physicians administer Medicines to alter the Blood and Juices. That famous Reply of _Socrates_ to the Phisiognomist was excellent: “Nature (says he) intended me a Monster; but Reason has made me what I am.” Cardinal _Richlieu_ (speaking of external Graces) says, “Every thing to a Gentleman should be natural.” Now it cannot be supposed that he means, we should know how to speak, or move, or dance gracefully, without being taught; no, but these Things by Acquisition should so far enter into us as to seem interwoven in our Nature. Thus did Philosophy change the Vices of _Socrates_ into Virtues; and thus should Parents correct and alter the irregular Dispositions of their Children: they must temper and moderate the Fire of one, lest it grow too impetuous; they must animate the Mildness of another with a Degree of Warmth, lest it become sluggish; and they must blunt and sweeten the Acrimony of a third, lest it degenerate into Rancour; which last Frame of Mind, as it is of all others the most detestable in itself, and the most dangerous to Society, so of all others it requires the nicest Care to manage; in short Parents, as I have already observed, are to let their Children see and feel their Affection for them, and their Power over them; and then regulate their Actions as they find necessary.

I have still my Eye on Children in the first Septenary, and with Concern view the Majority of them humour’d, and therefore humoursome; Boys audacious and impudent under the Name of courageous; and Girls pert and vain under the name of witty. It is my Opinion the Parents need not trouble themselves much to reason with their Children in this Stage; first let them consider what is proper for them to do, or avoid; then enforce their Compliance in soft and winning Terms; or, if not with a smiling Countenance, at least with a smooth Brow and without harshness: but whenever they attempt to disobey, let them shew by a Word or a Look that they are absolute: which Method I think should be seriously adhered to. Though I have already observed that Children have Knowledge much earlier than is commonly imagined, they have yet no Judgment to guide their Actions. What they chiefly discover to us at this Age is Cunning; therefore if Parents neglect Reproof when necessary, they will soon get the better of them. For Example, a Child cries because it is to go to School; shall Parents fondly to quiet it keep it at Home? by no means. A Dose of Physic is to be taken; shall they, because it is unpleasant, humour the Child, and throw it away? no surely. There is no other Method here but being serious; you must go, you must take it; when Children thus see their Parents in earnest, Obedience very soon becomes familiar and easy.