§ 570. Some of these Caitiffs however, apprehending the Force and Danger of that Objection, founded on their Want of Study and Education, have endeavoured to elude it, by infusing and spreading a false, and indeed, an impudent impious Prejudice among the People, which prevails too much at present; and this is, that their Talents for Physic are a supernatural Gift, and, of Course, greatly superior to all human Knowledge. It were going out of my Province to expatiate on the Indecency, the Sin, and the Irreligion of such Knavery, and incroaching upon the Rights and perhaps the Duty of the Clergy; but I intreat the Liberty of observing to this respectable Order of Men, that this Superstition, which is attended with dreadful Consequences, seems to call for their utmost Attention: and in general the Expulsion of Superstition is the more to be wished, as a Mind, imbued with false Prejudices, is less adapted to imbibe a true and valuable Doctrine. There are some very callous hardened Villains among this murdering Band, who, with a View to establish their Influence and Revenue as well upon Fear as upon Hope, have horridly ventured so far as to incline the Populace to doubt, whether they received their boasted Gift and Power from Heaven or from Hell! And yet these are the Men who are trusted with the Health and the Lives of many others.
§ 571. One Fact which I have already mentioned, and which it seems impossible to account for is, that great Earnestness of the Peasant to procure the best Assistance he can for his sick Cattle. At whatever Distance the Farrier lives, or some Person who is supposed qualified to be one (for unfortunately there is not one in Swisserland) if he has considerable Reputation in this Way, the Country-man goes to consult him, or purchases his Visit at any Price. However expensive the Medicines are, which the Horse-doctor directs, if they are accounted the best, he procures them for his poor Beast. But if himself, his Wife or Children fall sick, he either calls in no Assistance nor Medicines; or contents himself with such as are next at Hand, however pernicious they may be, though nothing the cheaper on that account: for certainly the Money, extorted by some of these physical Conjurers from their Patients, but oftner from their Heirs, is a very shameful Injustice, and calls loudly for Reformation.
§ 572. In an excellent Memoir or Tract, which will shortly be published, on the Population of Swisserland, we shall find an important and very affecting Remark, which strictly demonstrates the Havock made by these immedical Magicians or Conjurers; and which is this: That in the common Course of Years, the Proportion between the Numbers and Deaths of the Inhabitants of any one Place, is not extremely different in City and Country: but when the very same epidemical Disease attacks the City and the Villages, the Difference is enormous; and the Number of Deaths of the former compared with that of the Inhabitants of the Villages, where the Conjurer exercises his bloody Dominion, is infinitely more than the Deaths in the City.
I find in the second Volume of the Memoirs of the oeconomical Society of Berne, for the Year 1762, another Fact equally interesting, which is related by one of the most intelligent and sagacious Observers, concerned in that Work. “Pleurisies and Peripneumonies (he says) prevailed at Cottens a la Côte; and some Peasants died under them, who had consulted the Conjurers and taken their heating Medicines; while of those, who pursued a directly opposite Method, almost every one recovered.”
§ 573. But I shall employ myself no longer on this Topic, on which the Love of my Species alone has prompted me to say thus much; though it deserves to be considered more in Detail, and is, in Reality, of the greatest Consequence. None methinks could make themselves easy with Respect to it so much as Physicians, if they were conducted only by lucrative Views; since these Conjurers diminish the Number of those poor People, who sometimes consult the real Physicians, and with some Care and Trouble, but without the least Profit, to those Gentlemen. But what good Physician is mean and vile enough to purchase a few Hours of Ease and Tranquillity at so high, so very odious a Price?
§ 574. Having thus clearly shewn the Evils attending this crying Nusance, I wish I were able to prescribe an effectual Remedy against it, which I acknowledge is far from being easy to do.
The first necessary Point probably was to have demonstrated the great and public Danger, and to dispose the State to employ their Attention on this fatal, this mortal Abuse; which, joined to the other Causes of Depopulation, has a manifest Tendency to render Swisserland a Desert.
§ 575. The second, and doubtless the most effectual Means, which I had already mentioned is, not to admit any travelling Mountebank to enter this Country; and to set a Mark on all the Conjurers: It may probably also be found convenient, to inflict corporal Punishment on them; as it has been already adjudged in different Countries by sovereign Edicts. At the very least they should be marked with public Infamy, according to the following Custom practised in a great City in France. “When any Mountebanks appeared in Montpellier, the Magistrates had a Power to mount each of them upon a meagre miserable Ass, with his Head to the Ass's Tail. In this Condition they were led throughout the whole City, attended with the Shouts and Hooting of the Children and the Mob, beating them, throwing Filth and Ordure at them, reviling them, and dragging them all about.”
§ 576. A third conducive Means would be the Instructions and Admonition of the Clergy on this Subject, to the Peasants in their several Parishes. For this Conduct of the common People amounting, in Effect, to Suicide, to Self-murder, it must be important to convince them of it. But the little Efficacy of the strongest and repeated Exhortations on so many other Articles, may cause us to entertain a very reasonable Doubt of their Success on this. Custom seems to have determined, that there is nothing in our Day, which excludes a Person from the Title and Appellation of an honest or honourable Man, except it be meer and convicted Theft; and that for this simple and obvious Reason, that we attach ourselves more strongly to our Property, than to any Thing else. Even Homicide is esteemed and reputed honourable in many Cases. Can we reasonably then expect to convince the Multitude, that it is criminal to confide the Care of their Health to these Poisoners, in Hopes of a Cure of their Disorders? A much likelier Method of succeding on this Point would certainly be, to convince the deluded People, that it will cost them less to be honestly and judiciously treated, than to suffer under the Hands of these Executioners. The Expectation of a good and cheap Health-market will be apt to influence them more, than their Dread of a Crime would.
§ 577. A fourth Means of removing or restraining this Nusance would be to expunge, from the Almanacs, all the astrological Rules relating to Physick; as they continually conduce to preserve and increase some dangerous Prejudices and Notions in a Science, the smallest Errors in which are sometimes fatal. I had already reflected on the Multitude of Peasants that have been lost, from postponing, or mistiming a Bleeding, only because the sovereign Decision of an Almanac had directed it at some other Time. May it not also be dreaded, to mention it by the Way, that the same Cause, the Almanacs, may prove injurious to their rural Oeconomy and Management; and that by advising with the Moon, who has no Influence, and is of no Consequence in Vegetation or other Country Business, they may be wanting in a due Attention to such other Circumstances and Regulations, as are of real Importance in them?