“‘Dr. Gale, of St. Paul’s schoole, assures me that a Frenchman came one time from London to Cambridge, purposely to see him, whom he made stay two houres for him in his gallery, and then he came out in an old blue gowne. The French gentleman makes him two or three very low bowes downe to the ground; Dr. Butler whippes his legge over his head, and away goes into his chamber, and did not speake with him. He kept an old mayd, whose name [p340] was Nell. Dr. Butler would many times goe to the taverne, but drinke by himselfe: about nine or ten at night, old Nell comes to him with a candle and lanthorne, and sayes, “Come home, you drunken beast.” By and by Nell would stumble, then her master calls her “drunken beast;” and so they did “drunken beast” one another all the way till they came home.’
“‘The Dr. lyeing at the Savoy in London, next the water side, where was a balcony look’t into the Thames, a patient came to him that was grievously tormented with an Ague. The Dr. orders a boate to be in readinesse under his windowe, and discoursed with the patient (a gent.) in the balcony, when, on a signal given, two or three lusty fellows came behind the gent., and threw him a matter of twenty feet into the Thames. This surprise absolutely cured him.’
“‘A gent. with a red, ugly, pimpled face, came to him for a cure. Said the Dr. “I must hang you.” So presently he had a device made ready to hang him from a beam in the roome; and when he was e’en almost dead, he cuts the veins that fed these pimples, and lett out the black ugly blood, and cured him.’
“Butler must have been a man of abilities, for the Lord Treasurer Burleigh wrote to the President of the College of Physicians, desiring that Butler might be allowed to practice in London occasionally, and he was consulted, with Sir Theodore Mayerne and others, in the sickness that proved fatal to Prince Henry; and it is reported that Butler, at first sight of him, gave an unfavorable prognostic. The account of this case affords such an excellent notion of the consultations and practise of the doctors of those days, that I am induced to give it as stated in the ‘Desiderata Curiosa.’
“The Manner of the Sickness and Death of Prince Henry, 6th Nov. 1612.
“‘Dr. Atkins, a Physician of London, famous for his practyce, honestie, and learninge, was sent for to assiste the reste in the cure.
“‘He got worse, whereupon bleedinge was again proposed by Dr. Mayerne, and the favorers thereof, alledging that in this case of extremity, they must (if they meant to save his life) proceed in the cure, as though he was some meane person.
“‘This was not agreed to, and next day, the Physicians, Chirurgeons, and Apothecaryes seemed to be dismayed, as men perplexed, yet the most part were of opinion, that the crisis was to been seene before a final dissolution. This day a cock was cloven by the backe, and applyed to the soles of his feete. But in vayne. Shortly after it was announced that all hope was gone. His Majestie then gave leave and absolute power to Dr. Mayerne, to do what he woulde of himselfe, without advise of the rest; but the Doctor did not it seems like this, “for hee, weighing the greatness [p341] of the cure and eminencye of the danger, would not, for all that, adventure to doe any thinge of himself, without the advice of the rest, saying, that it should never be said in after ages, that he had kylled the Kynge’s eldest sonne.”
“‘Bleeding was again proposed by Mayerne, but Doctors Hamond, Butler, and Atkins could not agree about it; instead of which they doubled and tripled the cordials.
“‘Then came to assist the rest, Dr. Palmer and Dr. Giffard, famous physicians for their honestie and learninge. The result of this consultation was Diascordium, which was given in the presence of many honourable gentlemen.