the rational physician - richard whitlock's medical satires j hist med allied...

The Rational Physician:Richard Whitlock's Medical Satires

CHRISTOPHER BENTLEY

ELATIVELY little is known of the life of RichardWhitlock, physician, clergyman, and essayist. He wasborn in London in 1616, the son of a gentleman andmerchant of the same name, educated at Oxford, wherehe took the degrees of B.A. (1635) and B.C.L. (1640), andwas elected a Fellow of All Souls College, probably in

1638. Whitlock also studied abroad, matriculating in the Faculty of Lawat the University of Leyden in 1643. Zootomia, his only published work,appeared early in 1654. After the Restoration, Whitlock was ordained andbecame successively vicar of Stowe, Buckinghamshire and Ashford, Kent,where he died in October 1666.1

Whitlock styles himself 'M.D.' on the title page of Zootomia, but ap-parendy he did not take this degree at Oxford; nor is his name in WilliamMunk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians. He may have acquired hismedical degree at Leyden, transferring from the Faculty of Law to theFaculty of Medicine; alternatively, there is a reference in Zootomia to aninscription 'writ over the Schools at Padua' which indicates that Whidockhad some knowledge of that university. Both Leyden and Padua weremuch resorted to during the seventeenth century by Englishmen seekingmedical qualifications. Wherever Whitlock took his M.D., it seems veryprobable that he spent part of the Civil War and Interregnum period as apractising physician; the mention in Zootomia of his 'Vexations' and 'Ex-perienc'd Torture' in connection with the vagaries of patients can be takenno other way.

The full title of his book, which has not been reprinted, is Zootomia, or,Observations on the Present Manners of the English: Briefly Anatomizing theLiving by the Dead. With an usejull Detection of the Mountebanks of bothSexes (London, 1654). Whitlock has been strongly influenced by Robert

1. For a fuller, documented account of Whitlock's life, see Christopher Bentley, The life ofRichard Whitlock,' Engl. Lang. Notts, 1972,10, 111-115.

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Bentley : Whitlock's Medical Satires 181

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and to a lesser degree by the writings ofSir Thomas Browne.2 The work is a 'Morall Anatomy' consisting ofmore dian fifty essays—some scarcely longer than a paragraph, othersrunning to more than thirty pages—on such topics as friendship, time,fortune, the reason, death, books and readers, the excellence of women,hypocrisy, detraction, and prudent conduct in dangerous times. An ag-gressive intellectual, he also furnishes defences of the three arts of poetry,music, and painting, and an eloquent apology for universities and scholar-ship in response to Puritan criticism of the universities in the 1650s. Whit-lock translates his Greek title as 'live Dissection' and the common themeof the essays is the dissecting and exposing of errors and prejudices inhuman behaviour. His professional interest in the theory and practice ofmedicine, apparent throughout the work, finds particular expression infour satirical essays on medical subjects.

The four medical essays are printed together (pages 45 to 137) and,although prominendy mentioned on the tide page, form less than onesixth of the book. The first of these essays, 'The Quacking Hermaphrodite, orPetticoat Practitioner, Stript and Whipt,' is a spirited and amusing attackon supposedly charitable women who treat the sick without charge. Amore serious tone is apparent in the second and longest of the four essays,' The Peoples Physitian,' an indictment of mountebanks and medical em-piricism. 'The Valentian Doctor exposes ignorant pretenders to genuinemedical learning; while the last essay, 'Medicinall Observations & Char-acters, Containing 1. A Live Dissection of Selfe-killers, and their Acces-sories, or of Patients and their Tenders . . . ,' is, as its title suggests, amiscellany in which censure is widely distributed.

11

The basic issue of Whitlock's medical essays is contained in Burton'sobservation, 'An Empiricke many times, and a silly Chirurgion, dothmore strange cures, then a rationall Physitian.'3 Writing as a qualifieddoctor of medicine, Whidock is concerned to refute the empirics 'whosepractise in Physick is nothing but the Countrey dance, call'd Hit or Misse'4

and who effect cures more by luck than art. He is unashamedly partisan,

a. Whitlock quota, with acknowledgement!, both Browne's Religlo medid and hi» Pseudodoxiaepidemica. Burton a not mentioned in Zootomia, but the work contains many unacknowledgedborrowings from the Anatomy; see Christopher Bentley, 'The anatomy of melancholy and RichardWhitlock's Zootomia,' Renaiss. mod. Stud., 1969,13, 88-105.

3. Robert Burton, The anatomy of melancholy, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1624), p. 83.4. Richard Whitlock, Zootomia (London, 1654), p. n j .

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182 Journal of the History of Medicine : April 1974

and these are among the most contentious and polemic essays in Zootomia.Ridicule, abuse, and indignation characterize his approach to empirics,personified in 'The Peoples Physitian':

In nothing more doth that many-headed (but slender-witted) judge, theVulgar, betray their weaknesse of Judgement, dian in their choice liking, orAdmiration of their Divines, and Physitians. For their Divine commonly, let hisDoctrine be new, and his Chin not old; and he is compleady qualified. But wouldyou know their Physitian? (On whose skill diough they venture no wagers onit, diey will dieir lives) Them diey will trust with uiose they would scarce trustfor an Angell. And would you know die Attractions that are in him? Why,

1. He is a Native with an Outlandish Name; A Renegado from some Trade, orProfession, hee could not radge with: By whose Dulnesse, no Mystery, but scornedto be Master'd: and banckrupt of all waies to live, He resolves to kill; but hisValour would not endure the way of killing Folke against their "Wills, butsetteth on a slier way of feeding Himselfe, (and die wormes too,) with bold,(because Lawlesse) and ignorant Adventures in Physick, in which, (after a Prenti-ship to die Plague, or some Disease, so Epidemicall, that his Miscarriages cannotbe heard, for die Din of Knells) Opinion, and die commendations of pooreinconsiderable People, (no more able to judge of worth, than to satisfie it;)maketh Him Free. . . .5

This man is a rogue, cheating gullible folk of their money, but femalepractitioners are no less culpable, even though they make no charge fortheir treatment:

And have at thy Coat old Woman, (or young,) whose knowledge is Simples,Practise the misapplying of diem, Charity, Manslaughter, Creed, a Receipt-Book, and Library an Herball. Since you will be learning Propria qua; Maribus,Arts difficult enough for Men, still nibling At forbidden knowledge, pray be not soangry at the reading of diese Trudis, (or if you be, it matters not,) as jusdy I was,at the writing hereof. And first let me tell you, I do not so much wonder youretaine your Grandmodier Eves quality, (with this difference) she kil'd us all atone blow, and you kill us one by one, (as our excellent Poet said in anodierCase,) as diat there are any, (nay so many,) diat will Jugulum dare, be killed bydie hands of a Woman. . . .6

The violence of the language in these passages and the parallels drawnwith theology (in the equating of the people's physician with the people'sdivine and the description of medicine as 'forbidden knowledge' forwomen) remind us that Whitlock writes in a time of bitter religious and

5. Ibid., pp. 6a-<53.6. Ibid., pp. 45-46. This and the preceding quotation are the opening passages of the two essays.

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political controversy carried on partly by pamphlet warfare. Invectivewas the mode of the age, even in scientific debate, and Whitlock is noexception.

In his attitude to unorthodox medical practitioners, Whitlock, thoughin no sense an official spokesman, largely represents the views of thatinfluential and quasi-governmental body, the College of Physicians,'founded in London, with the avowed purpose of ridding England ofquacks and raising the standards of practicing physicians,'7 and at thisperiod still 'a stronghold of Galenism' and conservative medicine gen-erally.8 Like the College, Whitlock is an enthusiastic supporter of profes-sionalism; anyone who treats the sick must have the degrees that entitlehim to practise legally and morally. Unlike all his professional colleagues,Whitlock is honest enough to recognize that these degrees must be theresult of solid learning rather than 'some years of Duncery spent in aGown,' and must be matched by correspondingly high standards of prac-tice. In one of the nonmedical essays we find a plea (by implication) forprofessional conduct among physicians:

Come we to Physitians, and all Detractions Currents seem lost as in a Sea; noProfession being more inclinable to this iwomtda live Dissection of one another,Than that of Physitians, or Chirurgions. Here that Desideratum my Lord Baconspeaketh of, viz. Anatomia Comparata, or Dissection of infirm Bodies, is supplyed;for nothing more frequent than Comparative Openings of one another: theirDeserts, with the nimble Perfunctorinesse of some Commentators (that skip overhard Places) but their Faults, Infirmities, or Miscarriages, wiui Descants no lessetedious than malicious?

In opposition to 'Empiricall Amethodists' and their total reliance onexperience, Whitlock emphasizes in a thoroughly traditional manner theimportance of reason and method (reason's application to medical prac-tice). The concept of the 'rationall Physitian' informs his attack; he writesapprovingly of 'sober, and rationall Physitians' and of 'the honest and

7. Phyllis Allen, 'Medical education in 17th century England,'/. Hist. Med., 1946,I, 116-117.8. R. F. Jones, Atuimti and moderns: a study of the rise of the scientific movement in seventeenth-century

England, 2nd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), p. 213. There ii, however, debate about theextent of the College1! conservatism. According to C. C. Gillispie, 'Phyjick and philosophy: a studyof the influence of the College of Physicians of London upon the foundation of the Royal Society,'J. mod. Hist., 1947, if, 214, the physicians' writing of this time 'reflected a growing reliance uponclinical experience, ill-digested and little understood certainly, but with overtones of a Baconianrevolt against Galenic authority. It was only in the literature inspired by the plague that the RoyalCollege's contributions were practically indistinguishable in tone from the most superstitious andobscurantist writings of any "quacksalver" or Puritan divine."

9. Whitlock (n. 4), pp. 453-454-

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rationall Endeavours of a Physitian.'10 The extent to which irregular prac-titioners eschew the rational approach to healing is the measure of theirignorance and culpability. In place of study and reason the empiric substi-tutes 'Talkative Ignorance, and brazen Impudence,' and finds favour withthe populace,

so that his Non-sense be but fluent, and mixt with disparagement of the Col-ledge, Graduated Doctors, or Book-learned Physicians, against which they bringin their high and mighty word Experience. O! their experience of this longstanding is the onely Abilities, cry they. Reason they call wrangling, or bookish-nesse (whereas it is well known on a Rationall Scrutiny, that death is not morecertain than diat Proposition in Heumius . . . Deadi widiout question, is dieevent of Immediodicall Experience). . . . u

The grounds of the argument are clearly delineated here: institutionalizedlearning versus mere empiricism; and (as Whitlock insists) it is literally amatter of life and death.

in

Whitlock's survey of the fringe medicine of his day is comprehensive. Inaddition to his main attack on mountebanks of several kinds and bothsexes, he finds occasion to refute such peripheral abuses as the relatedpseudosciences of astrology and uroscopy.12 Distinguished by the titles of'Pisse-prophets' and ' Waterologers,' the uroscopists receive a particularlyrough handling. Nor do unreliable patients ('self-executioners') and offi-cious friends of the sick ('Accessories of this Man-slaughter') escape cen-sure. His unrelenting hostility to unorthodox medical practitioners would,if considered in isolation, show Whitlock as an authoritarian dogmatist;but, as Zootomia amply demonstrates, he is a man of considerable intel-lectual complexity, and his attitudes to medicine are neither simple norperhaps entirely consistent. Though ready enough to attack the practicesof empirics and, by his insistence on reason as the essential quality in aphysician, to decry their faith in experiment and experience, he is notice-ably backward in defending established theories of medicine. In a momentof frankness he admits that 'the Theorie of Physick is for the most part

10. Ibid., pp. 133, <55. 132.11. Ibid., pp. 83—84.12. Zootomia a cited by Hugh G. Dick, 'Studenti of physic and astrology: a survey of astrological

medicine in the age of science,' J. Hist. Med., 1946, 1, 305, in a footnote lilt of seventeenth centuryworks attacking uroscopy. Evidence presented in the article suggests that not all physicians rejecteduroscopy and astrology as unambiguously as Whitlock; indeed, 'students in physic and astrologyclaimed sympathizers and patrons among regularly qualified doctors' (p. 416).

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Bentky : Whitlock's Medical Satires 185

Conjecture, or Controversie.'13 These are not the words of a completeauthoritarian; and when, in a striking phrase, he speaks of'that boundlesseOrbe of Physick,'14 we are reminded of Francis Bacon's sense of the limi-tations of existing knowledge.

Whitlock's portrait of ' The Valentian Doctor' ('of whom the ItalianProverb saith, Doctor di Valenza, Longa Robba, Corta Scienza. So the Gownbe long, no matter how short the Scholar')15 convincingly demonstratesthe flexibility of his approach to medicine. This specimen is a qualifiedphysician and apparently a member of the College of Physicians, for 'hescorneth to joyne with any that write not Doctor, or is not of the Col-ledge';16 but he is dangerously deficient in sound medical learning. Hisdegrees were apparently gained by money or influence, or perhaps ob-tained obscurely overseas. In his dissection of 'this Ape Doctor, (the Foile ofdeserving ones)' Whitlock betrays real doubts on the adequacy of estab-lished medical training and formal qualifications:

it is hard to say, whether the degree doth more misbecome him, or he dishonourit: for that of Dr. Primrose is an undeniable Trudi;... Hee that writeth Dunce onthe Vespers or Eve of his Doctorship, doth not alter his Copy, and go outScholler next day, though he commence Dr. nor is he the lesse learned, orPhysitian, that hadi not wrapt his Abilities in Scarlet, which often times blushethfor the ignorance it coveredi, according to that following trudi in the sameAudior, and Chapter. . . . many Medicasters, pretenders to Physick, buy diedegree of Doctor abroad, and come home and sel it for the Lives and Monyesof dieir own Countrymen.17

Clearly, all is not well with the physicians themselves if such incompetentscan attain to the respectability of professional status. The pseudophysicianis especially blameworthy because his 'two Elements o f . . . Pride, andIgnorance' discredit both the physicians of whose number he claims to be,and the learning that they all profess.

Whitlock has a high opinion of the profession; physic is natural philoso-phy in operation, 'a Liberall Art, (or Science).' It has been suggested thatin the seventeenth century 'many physicians seem to have thought ofthemselves less as doctors than practicing natural philosophers whose fieldsimply happened to be medicine.'18 Whitlock makes no such large claims

13. Whidock (n. 4), p. 133.14. Ibid., p. 65.15. Ibid., pp. 101-102.16. Ibid., p. 10a.17. Ibid., pp. 106-107.18. Gillijpie (u. 8), p. 214.

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for himself, but his respect for natural philosophy is evident. The medi-caster's defective natural philosophy is exposed in a passage containingsome ingenious criticism of Aristode and an apparent reminiscence ofSir Thomas Browne.

As for the true Abilities of our Valentian Dr. his natural Philosophy, what is it,(if Hee have tasted of Aristotles well,) but a Systeme of vulgar Errours? whichhee endeavouredi to maintain against all opposers, with a sic dicit Aristoteles,diough, Qua dicit Aristoteles? what Aristotle doth say, is so much a question, diatCharity must assign, which limme of the contradictions (frequent in his works,)is most probably his Opinion, and most agreeing to the sence of so great aMaster of Reason as in himselfe, (Detraction it selfe will confesse,) he was. Butsuch Philosophers as this Dr. wrong an Author, (worthy of esteem for manythings,) in misunderstanding his Truths; and diemsclves, in blindly beleiving dieErrours of the compiler, or compiling of those works that bear his Name.19

Whitlock's sceptical approach to the text and canon of Aristotle remindsus that at about the same time Thomas Hobbes was questioning the an-tiquity and authorship of certain books of the Bible.20 Whitlock is notready to reject Aristotle out of hand, but his attitude is definitely anti-dogmatic; it is 'a Philosophy too generall; to know too little, and beleivetoo much.'21 His medical essays contain many quotations from authoritiesin the field, but they are chosen eclectically, with the moderns predomi-nating. Significantly, Galen is never cited and his followers are mentionedbut once (and then in an ambiguous manner). A free exercise of reason,that essential quality of mind for the ancients, leads Whitlock away froman uncritical acceptance of their learning. The 'Doctor of Valentia is'pertinaciously either a Galenist, or Paracebian, but he is too raw to beJudicious in either, too wilfull to be a Conciliator of both';22 the capablephysician should use reason and judgement to find truth where he may. Torely entirely upon experience, as Whitlock claims the empirics do, isshown to be ridiculous and dangerous; but it finds a place, albeit a sub-sidiary one, in his list of qualities required in a physician, quoted withevident approval from Hippocrates ('Education even from youth, NaturallAbilities advanced by Study, confirmed by experience, &c.').23 The em-pirics, Whitlock points out, fall short even of their own standards, for they

19. Whitlock (n. 4), pp. 107-108.20. Thomaj Hobbo, Leviathan, iii, 33 [C. B. Macpherson, ed (London, 1068), pp. 415-437].21. Whidock (n. 4), p. 108.22. Ibid.23. Ibid., p . 90.

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possess 'neither the compasse of Theory and Reason, or Rudder of experi-ence (but broken and imperfect).'24

Whitlock does not attempt to reconcile the factions of medicine. He isutterly opposed to irregular practitioners (most of whom placed them-selves to some degree under the patronage of Paracelsus); but his medicalessays encourage the physicians to put their own house in order by ex-cluding the ill-educated and by forbearing to adhere too firmly to anyopinion or authority on the grounds of mere antiquity. The rationalphysician should follow reason in his selection of authorities, as well as inhis practice. In medical matters Whitlock exercises the 'Liberty of Judge-ment' and 'Independency of Reason that he defends so earnestly elsewhere inZootomia.

IV

Whitlock's medical essays are written as Theophrastan Characters. Thisminor genre of English literature is a seventeenth century innovation, andone that enjoyed considerable popularity during the first half of that cen-tury. It has been suggested that the vogue for Character-writing stemsfrom Isaac Casaubon's edition of Theophrastus' Characters—first pub-lished in 1592 and expanded in an edition of 1599—in which the originalGreek is accompanied by a Latin translation.25 The first English collectionof Characters written in imitation of Theophrastus, Joseph Hall's Charac-ters ofVertues and Vices, appeared in 1608, and the acknowledged mastersof the form—John Earle and the group of professional writers publishingunder the name of Sir Thomas Overbury—were active in the followingtwo decades. During the Civil Wars the Character was pressed into theservice of the national controversies; and by 1665 the form had apparentlydegenerated into a school exercise, as 'Rules for making it' are included in amanual for young scholars published in that year. A Character is definedas 'a witty and facetious description of the nature and qualities of someperson, or sort of people,' and the apprentice Character-writer is instructedto

1. Chuse a Subject, viz. such a sort of men as will admit of variety of observa-tion, such be, drunkards, usurers, lyars, taylors, excise-men, travellers, pedlars,merchants, tapsters, lawyers, an upstart gendeman, a young Justice, a Constable,an Alderman, and the like.

24. Ibid., p. 89.25. Benjamin Boycc, The Theophrastan Character in England to 1643 (Cambridge, Mas . , 1947),

PP- 53-54-

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2. Express their natures, qualities, conditions, practices, tools, desires, aims, orends, by witty Allegories, or Allusions, to diings or terms in nature, or art, oflike nature and resemblance, still striving for wit and pleasantness, together withtart nipping jerks about their vices or miscarriages.

3. Conclude with some witty and neat passage, leaving them to the effect oftheir follies or studies.26

These rules are really a summary of the methods and subject matter of thebest Character-writers, and it is surprising that such an obvious victim asthe mountebank is omitted from the list of suggested subjects. ManyCharacter-books contain some medical types: the Overbury collectionincludes the Character of 'A Quacksaluer and a catalogue of mock-reme-dies entitled 'The Mountebankes Receipts'; Earle writes on 'A meere dullPhisitiari and, patronisingly, on 'A Surgeon'; while, to redress the balance,Thomas Fuller's The Holy State (1642) has ' The good Physician.'

Though Whitlock does quote (in another part of Zootomia) Casaubon'sinfluential edition of Theophrastus, his medical Characters seem chieflyindebted to these English writers, and he adopts many of their stylisticdevices. Most Character-writers cultivate a close-packed style with rig-orous economy of words, and—as if to emphasize this economy—oftenuse the title of a Character as the opening words of its first sentence. Whit-lock is far less sparing with words, but his third Character begins:

The Valentian Doctor

Is one that hadi done his Exercises in Fees, or by some superiour Fiat is createdDoctor; but for die Participle Doctus (die Abilities requisite for die Profession)he may fling his new Worships Cap at it: for he came to Doctor (it may be) persaltum, or say some years of Duncery spent in a Gown, never had any diing inhim Magister Artium, but his belly; covetousnesse or necessity maketh him nowturn GoMfinder in a lesser volume (by how much close stools are lesse dian dioseodier Mines) that is Physin'an. He saw money might be got by the Profession,be he able or no; dierefore his Degrees he is resolved to get: Doctor he will be,though but Doctor of Valentia. . . .21

Here Whitlock has followed his models closely: the Character is intro-duced with the typical defining phrase, 'Is one that . . . ' ; the movement ofthe prose is rapid and uneven; and a somewhat obscure and scatologicalwit is prominent—all common features of the English TheophrastanCharacter.

26. Ralph Johnson, The scholars guide from the acdienct to the university (London, 1665), p. 15.27. Whitlock (n. 4), p. 101.

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Beniley : Whitlock's Medical Satires 189

Whitlock also adopts the conventional ending of the Character form('some witty and neat passage, leaving them to the effect of their follies orstudies'), and dismisses' The Peoples Physitiari in this manner: 'If you wouldheare more of this rare Physitian and his Feats (for I am sick of him) en-quire of sad Families, and merry Grave-makers, in a Church-yard Term.'2 8

The ending of 'The Quacking Hermaphrodite' is a more sustained piece ofsatiric virtuosity:

did the Country keep its Bills of Mortality, as the City doth, wee might in bothof themjusde in Shee-Physitians among the S.S. for a Disease, as surely Willing asSurfet, Stone, &c. or any other in the Bill. Behold, a Charity, not so much to thePatient, as unemployed Sextons, or Curates, that (like Lopez,) lye sick of a thinStipend, and an everlasting Parish. Such a Physitian in a Parish (any thing big) andthe Bels shall scarce lye still. Land-Lords of Copy-holds (by lives) would feelethe sweetnesse of their Neighbour-hood too. Beleive me they would be of nosmall use to purge a Common-wealth, without the expence of Hemp. Sicken aMalefactor with conviction, and mittimus him to the practise of a Shee Doctor,and you heare no more of him, he troubleth the Common-wealth no more: andall upon their owne charitable Account and charge. It were not amisse if theyhad a Colledge, shall I say, or Hall, (help me Invention!) no. Shambles erected forthis Sister-hood of Physitians, whither any unequally Yoaked might repaire forRedresse: The ill Wived, or ill Husbanded Wretches might here be comforted; orindeed any (to whom life it selfe is as bad as either of the former) might change,even a World, if weary of this: and were not this a charity? but to sum thedanger of it without an Irony. I am confident a practising Rib shall kill more thenthe law-bone of an Asse; and a Quacking Dalilah than a valiant Sampson.™

Though most Character-writers would adhere to the third person singu-lar, Whitlock shows a considerable mastery of the form. The accumulationof bizarre and paradoxical ideas invests the she-physicians with a grotesqueimportance; in a manner anticipating John Dry den's verse satires, the vic-tim is built up, the more thoroughly to be demolished. The casual allusionto Lopez (a character in Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's comedy,The Spanish Curate) relates this specialized satire to a wider field of comicwriting. Several phrases ('wee might,' 'Beleive me,' 'you heare no moreof him,' 'were not this a charity?') seem designed, in rhetorical fashion, tocreate intimacy between the satirist and his reader. Whitlock may discardirony in the last sentence, but a sure grasp of witty metaphor remains; and

28. Ibid., p. 100.29. Ibid., pp. 60-61.

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his inventiveness and vigorous expression are impressive throughout thepassage.

The complete Characters, however, are less successful literary achieve-ments than such short extracts suggest. Whitlock's wavering betweenthird person singular and plural, discernible throughout these essays, is onesign of his indifference to some of the conventions of the Character. Ofmore significance is the length of his Characters: the longest, 'The PeoplesPhysitian' contains approximately 8,000 words, while even the shortest,'The Valentian Doctor,' has approximately 1,600 words. (By contrast, theOverburian Character, 'A Quacksaluer,' contains about 410 words, andEarle's 'A tneere dull Phisitian and 'A Surgeon 500 and 310 words re-spectively.)

Whitlock's medical Characters are expanded by digressions and quota-tions. The structure of The People's Physitian demonstrates the resultantdiffuseness. Some opening remarks on the weak judgement of the popu-lace lead into a Character of the empiric, which soon digresses into a long,erudite attack on uroscopy occupying about half the essay; then the Char-acter is resumed and completed. Quotations, usually from Latin treatiseson medical subjects, abound in these four essays, as in the rest of Zootomia.Whitlock's purpose is didactic as well as satiric, and he shows a constantneed for the support of medical authorities. These quotations retard themovement of his prose, and the flow of wit—so essential to the Character—is often interrupted. In 'The Valentian Doctor Whitlock seems moremindful of the conventions of Character-writing, but even this Charactercontains several passages from Latin authors, together with an Englishtranslation. Such a practice would not be out of place in a conventionalmedical work, but it accords badly with the literary form Whitlock haschosen. According to an authority on the genre, 'many an English writerseems not to have conceived of the essay and the Character as literaryforms distinct from each odier.'30 Whitlock's 'Medicinall Observations &Characters' are a blend of essay and Character, with elements of the learnedtreatise and some discursive philosophizing in the manner of Burton. In hisdescription of the tricks of empirics there are even reminiscences of theconey-catching pamphlets of Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe a genera-tion earlier. Often the urbane wit of the Character-writer gives place torailing and abuse:

All that falsely usurp this tide of Physitian, and practise it, to the sad cost of

30. Boycc (n. 35), p. 81.

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many; what are they but the Scum of the people, take off their Visards, andunderneath appeare Wicked Jewes, Murtherers of Christians, Monks, abdicantof their orders, &c. Unlearned Chymists, conceited Paedagogues, dull Mechan-icks, Pragmaticall Barbers, wandring Mountebancks, Cashiered Souldiers, in-debted Trades-men, Husband-men that have been ill Husbands, Toothlesse-women, fudling Gossips, and Chare-women, talkative Midwives, &c. In summe. . . the scum of Mankind.31

This piece of invective recalls Burton's style, the more so as it is translatedfrom a Latin author; and Whitlock's medical Characters have a similarityto the amorphous near-Characters that occur in the Anatomy. As in Bur-ton, illustrative anecdotes, authorial comment, and digressive generaliza-tions are freely interspersed—all diluting the Character element in theseessays.

Whitlock has a good command of colloquial language and an amusingfacility in parodic reproduction of dialogue; but the result is still a weak-ening of the Character form by the introduction of extraneous social satire.

And now the Doctor is come, let us see his entertainment: why it is with,welcome Sir. I made bold to trouble you: which I had done sooner, but that Ithought it would have wore away: or at least my Neighbours Surfet water (thathath done many good) might have saved any further trouble: and now theDoctor beginneth to be the Patient, such Trians of Patience do salute Him.

1. Some would only know, whether hee thinketh they shall withstand it orno. I would be loath, saith one, to Physick it too much. I hope it is but a cold,if I could but sweat or sleep, I doubt not but I shall do well.

2. A second he would willingly take somewhat, but nothing but what iscomfortable and you must not deny Him to make him sleep: he alwayes, whenhe hath been ill, found nothing did Him so much good as Rest.

Talk to him of any Vomit, or Purge, alas his Body is too week, he never tookany sick Physick in his life: and humbly conceiveth this no fit time to begin: anda Clyster, no though he dye for it, he cannot think of it: if the Doctor wil havepatience, (as he must) the Patient wanteth but Pen and Ink, and he will prescribehis Physick 32

An important part of Whitlock's argument is that 'Were there not foolishMen, there would be no Cunning Women (or empirics of either sex); butwhile satire directed generally against ' Mountebanck-making Patients' mayhelp to make this point, the force of the attack on the satirist's primaryobjects—the empirics themselves—is diminished. An argumentative ap-

31. Whitlock (n. 4), p. 93.32. Ibid., pp. 120-121.

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proach is apparent throughout these essays: most Character-writers buildtheir portraits by observation and statement; Whitlock prefers argumentand persuasion:

Would men put on their considering caps (they might sooner put off their sickcaps) and did but know (as Ingenious Physitians do) what a dangerous Syllo-gisme meer experiments make, he would confesse, that from having cured thesame man, in the same case, by the same meanes, cannot be drawne argument ordirection sufficient for the future, since the very time may so alter a man, thatthere must be variation allowed in die Remedy, for alteration of temper andconstitution; nay, in the same Disease, what in die beginning may be remedy,in die state and vigour may be poyson, and die same Potion diat in its due placeadministered, may doe die Patient good, in a wrong, may do die Heire orExecutors good,33

This may be sound logic and good medicine, but it is certainly alien to theCharacter form and perhaps even to the essay. A reasoned appeal has re-placed the confident authority of the satirist.

Whitlock, however, is more interested (and perhaps more competent)in medicine than in literary form. An oddly self-conscious—almost ama-teurish—manner is sometimes detectable in his handling of his chosenform, suggested by such phrases as 'How easily might I here digresse inSatyre' and 'I passe to the other qualifications of the peoples Physitian.'34

A more serious limitation is his narrowness of vision; unlike the bestCharacter-writers he offers us not a revelation of human nature but merelyan exposure of fraudulent and dangerous practices. Literary considerationstake second place to professional ones, and the physician masters thesatirist. Propagandist literature necessarily simplifies: Whitlock writes onthe assumption that a she-physician's charity is only ostentation, and thatan empiric practises solely for money. The moral natures of his victims areignored, and the reader must be content with a description of their dis-honest dealings—what they do, not what they are. Only in the morecomplex analysis of ' The Valentian Doctor is there some attempt at agenuine enquiry after motive.

Of course, Whitlock has gained certain advantages by writing on medi-cine through the medium of the Character. A tendency for his essays tobecome a collection of miscellaneous observations, attacks, and argumentsis checked, and they are given at least a semblance of unity. Subjectmatter that at best is not free from the suspicion of partisan interest, and

33. Ibid., p. 116.34. Ibid., pp. 46, 82.

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at its worst is tediously technical, acquires an attractive veneer. As aphysician Whitlock knows the necessity of sugaring the pill, of makinghis truths more palatable by presenting them in the shape of satiric Theo-phrastan Characters. In the preface to Zootomia his allusion to the medicalessays is a defence of comic form:

For the Pleasantnes ofsom of these Tell-troths, let the world excuse me, if I playwith my Vexations, and turn my Experienc'd Torture to Delight, as knowing nobetter Revenge on (no nor Cure of) vulgar Stupidity, (specially in Concernmentso/Physick, and their own Health) than—Ridentem dicere verum, to tell themTrudis pleasantly, since it is the constant humour of the people to love the Jiggbetter, than any good or serious part of the Play.35

Evidence from the troubled years of the mid-seventeenth century sug-gests a real need for Whitlock's 'usefull Detection of the Mountebanks ofboth Sexes.' Ever since its foundation in 1518 one of the chief functions ofthe College of Physicians had been the suppression of unlicensed and ir-regular medical practitioners of all kinds; and this task was made muchharder by the disruption of authority during the middle decades of thecentury. According to the recent historian of the College, 'during theCivil War . . . the unlicensed practitioners pretty certainly had an easiertime. Few accusations are recorded and fewer punishments. Only fourwomen appeared in seven years.'36 Though the College may have tempo-rarily lost the means to enforce its regulations, it had not lost the will:'In 1655/6 there was a general discussion on how to repress the empiricsand the unlicensed physicians, distinguished as two separate classes.'37 Inthe absence of effective policing by the College, one way to attack thecharlatans was by exposing them in print. Whitlock's freedom from rigidAristotelianism sets him apart intellectually from the orthodoxy of theCollege, but in practical matters their interests coincide. In a work notprimarily concerned with medicine, the 'M.D.' of his title page is conspicu-ous. He is a conscious, self-appointed spokesman for the educated and theprofessional against all ignorance and amateurism in medicine, a defenderof 'that requisite knowledge, which distinguisheth the Physician from theMountebanck.'38 Where he parts company from the greater number of his

35. Ibid., [tig. off].36. Sir George Clark, A history of the Royal College of Physicians of London, a vols. (Oxford, 1964-

66), 1, 276.37. Ibid,, 1, 289.38. WHtlock (n. 4), p. 46.

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fellow physicians is in his insistence on critical rationalism as a check todogmatism of any kind.

The prefatory matter in Zootomia includes a commendatory letter byJasper Mayne, eulogistic verses by Martin Lluelyn,39 and (in some copies)an address by Sir John Berkenhead entitled "The Publisher to the Reader.'The presence of these contributors makes more concrete certain social,professional, and political affiliations suggested by Whitlock's life andwritings. Like Whitlock, all three were Oxonians and—with varyingdegrees of outspokenness—royalists. Lluelyn, who was born in the sameyear as Whitlock, had published a volume of poems in 1646 and hadcontributed a poem to die English translation (1653) of William Harvey'sDe Generatione Animalium. He practised medicine in London diroughoutthe Interregnum, and in 1653 received an Oxford M.D. and became acandidate of the College of Physicians.40

Except for diese prefatory pieces, contemporary criticism of Zootomiais almost nonexistent, but an errata sheet appended to die CambridgeUniversity Library copy of John Collop's Poesis Rediviva (1656) containsthis statement:

Ingenuity is so much a stranger to the Presse, that it hath forgot what it is tobe ingenious, and tainted with ignorance infects the most ingenious pieces. Forthe Presses faults the Author desires a pardon, who scorns to intreat it for hisown: since his book dares appeal to Dr. Broum, Dr. Scarburg, Dr. Mayn, Dr.Whitlock, a Cleaveland, and a Berkenhead, and all those glorious stars, the efflux-ions of whose wits appear more Conspicuous in this darker age of ignorance 41

Interestingly, Whidock appears again with Mayne and Berkenhead, and—Sir Thomas Browne and Sir Charles Scarburgh figuring in the list—heis also associated with two distinguished physicians. Like Whitlock andLluelyn, Collop was a literary physician and a royalist sympadiiser; PoesisRediviva includes medical poems whose subject matter and style suggestthat he may have been influenced by Zootomia. These are die only indica-tions of Whitlock's professional standing and associates. Compared withSir Thomas Browne, 'diat great and true Amphibium' of literature andmedicine, Whidock is a minor figure; but he provides valuable insights

39. T o hii Ingenious, knowing Friend, The Author.' The vena are not signed, but a copy ofZootomia in the Guildhall Library, London, containing many manuscript corrections and additionswhich are almost certainly by Whidock, identifies the writer as 'M. Iiuellin: M.D.'

40. Dictionary of national biography, under Lluelyn or T.lndlyn, Martin (1616-1682); DouglasBush, English literatim In the earlier seventeenth century, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1962), p. 609.

41. John Collop, Poems, Conrad Hilberry, ed. (Madison, Wis., 1962), p. 29.

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Bentley : Whitbck's Medical Satires 195

on the concerns of a cultured physician in a troubled age, and his rigorousprofessionalism anticipates many developments in the organization ofEnglish medicine during the following two centuries.

Department of EnglishUniversity of SydneySydney, New South WalesAustralia

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the rational physician - richard whitlock's medical satires j hist med allied...

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