Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health

by S. A. D. Tissot

§ 586. Physicians have some Regard to the State of the Urine of sick Persons, especially in inflammatory Fevers; as the Alterations occurring in it help them to judge of the Changes that may have been made in the Character and Consistence of the Humours in the Mass of Blood; and thence may conduce to determine the Time, in which it will be proper to dispose them to some Evacuation. But it is gross Ignorance to imagine, and utter Knavery and Imposture to persuade the Sick, that the meer Inspection of their Urine solely, sufficiently enables others to judge of the Symptoms and Cause of the Disease, and to direct the best Remedies for it. This Inspection of the Urine can only be of Use when it is duly inspected; when we consider at the same time the exact State and the very Looks of the Patient; when these are compared with the Degree of the Symptoms of the Malady; with the other Evacuations; and when the Physician is strictly informed of all external Circumstances, which may be considered as foreign to the Malady; which may alter or affect the Evacuations, such as particular Articles of Food, particular Drinks, different Medicines, or the very Quantity of Drink. Where a Person is not furnished with an exact Account of these Circumstances, the meer Inspection of the Urine is of no Service, it suggests no Indication, nor any Expedient; and meer common Sense sufficiently proves, and it may be boldly affirmed, that whoever orders any Medicine, without any other Knowledge of the Disease, than what an Inspection of the Urine affords, is a rank Knave, and the Patient who takes them is a Dupe.

§ 587. And here now any Reader may very naturally ask, whence can such a ridiculous Credulity proceed, upon a Subject so essentially interesting to us as our own Health?

In Answer to this it should be observed, that some Sources, some Causes of it seem appropriated merely to the People, the Multitude. The first of these is, the mechanical Impression of Parade and Shew upon the Senses. 2, The Prejudice they have conceived, as I said before, of the Conjurers curing by a supernatural Gift. 3, The Notion the Country People entertain, that their Distemper and Disorders are of a Character and Species peculiar to themselves, and that the Physicians, attending the Rich, know nothing concerning them. 4, The general Mistake that their employing the Conjurer is much cheaper. 5, Perhaps a sheepish shame-faced Timidity may be one Motive, at least with some of them. 6, A Kind of Fear too, that Physicians will consider their Cases with less Care and Concern, and be likely to treat them more cavalierly; a Fear which increases that Confidence which the Peasant, and which indeed every Man has in his Equal, being sounded in Equality itself. And 7, the Discourse and Conversation of such illiterate Empirics being more to their Tast, and more adapted to their Apprehension.

But it is less easy to account for this blind Confidence, which Persons of a superior Class (whole Education being considered as much better are regarded as better Reasoners) repose in these boasted Remedies; and even for some Conjurer in Vogue. Nevertheless even some of their Motives may be probably assigned.

The first is that great Principle of Seïty, or Selfness, as it may be called, innate to Man, which attaching him to the Prolongation of his own Existence more than to any other thing in the Universe, keeps his Eyes, his utmost Attention, continually fixed upon this Object; and compels him to make it the very Point, the Purpose of all his Advances and Proceedings; notwithstanding it does not permit him to distinguish the safest Paths to it from the dangerous ones. This is the surest and shortest Way says some Collector at the Turnpike, he pays, passes, and perishes from the Precipices that occur in his Route.

This very Principle is the Source of another Error, which consists in reposing, involuntarily, a greater Degree of Confidence in those, who flatter and fall in the most with us in our favourite Opinions. The well apprised Physician, who foresees the Length and the Danger of a Disease; and who is a Man of too much Integrity to affirm what he does not think, must, from a necessary Construction of the human Frame and Mind, be listened to less favourably, than he who flatters us by saying what we wish. We endeavour to elongate, to absent ourselves, from the Sentiments, the Judgment of the first; we smile, from Self-complacency, at those of the last, which in a very little time are sure of obtaining our Preference.

A third Cause, which results from the same Principle is, that we give ourselves up the most readily to his Conduct, whose Method seems the least disagreeable, and flatters our Inclinations the most. The Physician who enjoins a strict Regimen; who insists upon some Restraints and Self-denials; who intimates the Necessity of Time and Patience for the Accomplishment of the Cure, and who expects a thorough Regularity through the Course of it, disgusts a Patient who has been accustomed to indulge his own Tast and Humour; the Quack, who never hesitates at complying with it, charms him. The Idea of a long and somewhat distant Cure, to be obtained at the End of an unpleasant and unrelaxing Regimen, supposes a very perilous Disease; this Idea disposes the Patient to Disgust and Melancholy, he cannot submit to it without Pain; and he embraces, almost unconsciously, merely to avoid this, an opposite System which presents him only with the Idea of such a Distemper, as will give Way to a few Doses of Simples.

That Propensity to the New and Marvellous, which tyrannizes over so large a Proportion of our Species, and which has advanced so many absurd Persons and Things into Reputation, is a fourth and a very powerful Motive. An irksome Satiety, and a Tiresomeness, as it were, from the same Objects, is what our Nature is apt to be very apprehensive of; though we are incessantly conducted towards it, by a Perception of some Void, some Emptiness in ourselves, and even in Society too: But new and extraordinary Sensations rousing us from this disagreeable State, more effectually than any Thing else, we unthinkingly abandon ourselves to them, without foreseeing their Consequences.

A fifth Cause arises from seven Eighths of Mankind being managed by, or following, the other Eighth; and, generally speaking, the Eighth that is so very forward to manage them, are the least fit and worthy to do it; whence all must go amiss, and absurd and embarrassing Consequences ensue from the Condition of Society. A Man of excellent Sense frequently sees only through the Eyes of a Fool, of an intriguing Fellow, or of a Cheat; in this he judges wrong, and his Conduct must be so too. A man of real Merit cannot connect himself with those who are addicted to caballing; and yet such are the Persons, who frequently conduct others.

Some other Causes might be annexed to these, but I shall mention only one of them, which I have already hinted, and the Truth of which I am confirmed in from several Years Experience; which is, that we generally love those who reason more absurdly than ourselves, better than those who convince us of our own weak Reasoning.