path: root/75845-0.txt

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75845 ***





                              THE GENUINE

                                 TRYAL

                                   OF

                             Dr. _NOSMOTH_,

                                   A

                          Physician in PEKIN;

                                  FOR

              The Murder of the MANDARIN TONWIN, Treasurer
                to the Army of the Emperor of CHINA,
                before the great Council of MANDARINES.

                           ------------------

                                 TAKEN
                  In short Hand by the LINGUIST of the
                           _English_ Factory.

                           ------------------

                               _LONDON_:
                Printed for M. COOPER, at the _Globe_ in
                       _Pater-noster-Row_. 1746.

                           (Price Six-Pence.)




------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration]




                                  THE

                             INTRODUCTION.


Before we enter upon this remarkable Tryal, it will not be improper to
inform the Reader of some Customs amongst the _Chinese_, which differ
from those in other Countries of _Europe_.

Those People are great Encouragers of all useful Learning; which they
endeavour on all Occasions, to turn to the Benefit of the publick in
general, and the Ease and Happiness of every individual Subject in that
vast Empire.

There are publick Schools in all the Provinces and great Cities of the
Empire, for the Education of Youth in the liberal as well as mechanick
Arts; where the Genius of the Children are carefully studied and
improved in those Arts to which Nature seems to have given them the
strongest Bent without consulting the Whim or Pride of the Parents; by
this means, it’s no rare thing to see the Son of a Nobleman drudging at
the meanest Handicraft; and that of a Peasant shining in the highest Orb
of Life.

Birth, Title, or Riches, give amongst these people no Claim to the
smallest Preferment; Merit only recommends the Man to Encouragement in
that Sphere of Life, to which his natural Genius has fitted him.

When a vacancy in any of the Offices happens, the Candidates are chosen
out of the publick Schools; and the Person fittest for the Employment
always is chosen, without Respect of Persons.

In this Country, the _Physician_ is a very considerable Office; not only
in the Emperor’s Court, but in that of all the _Mandarines_ or great
Governors and Officers of State.

Before any Man is preferr’d to the Office of Physician, either to the
Sovereign or to any of his great Men, he undergoes a strict and
impartial Examination, as to his Knowledge of the Theory and Practice of
Physick, as well as of the other Branches of Learning, which are
necessary to compleat the wise Physician.

The Examiners are not those of his own Profession; but the Great Council
of _Mandarines_; who are Men who have been found universally qualified
in all the Branches of humane Literature, before they were admitted to
be of this Council; which is the supream Council of the Empire, and some
what resembles our House of Peers, only they seem to be vested with much
higher Powers.

When the Person so examin’d is found qualified, he has a Certificate
sign’d by the President of the Court, which empowers him to practice, as
a Doctor under the Regulations which are prescribed by it; from whence,
he must deviate, upon no Account under the Pain of Death.

The Physicians, are held in great Esteem and Veneration; are there
modest in their Behaviour; of strict morals, and universal Benevolence,
most of them observe as great a Chastity of Manners, as the Clergy; and
value themselves upon their Piety and the Veneration of the Gods, whose
Worship they think it is the Duty of their Function to propagate, as
much as if they were daily at the Altar: They are Men of good Nature and
Humanity, and abound in Acts of Benificence and Charity; Opportunities
to exercise which, they covet as much as Employment in their Profession:
They dare not refuse to attend the meanest Person who calls for their
Assistance; and if a Beggar, send for a Physician, before a _Mandarin_,
he must go to the Beggar, tho’ the _Mandarin_ should be in never so much
Want of him; and the good natured Man, not only assists his Patient with
his Counsel, but supplys his Wants.

When the Physician, attends on a Patient, he enters upon a Book his
Case, with every minute Circumstance relating to the Distemper; together
with the Medicines administred and their Effects during the whole
Process; whether the Patient dies or Lives, this Book, he is obliged to
return within a limited Time, to an Office kept for that Purpose. If he
upon any Occasion falsifies the Case, or has gone out of the ordinary,
Course of Practice, if any Accident happens to the Patient he is surely
punished.

The Emperor’s Physicians are always put to Death when he dies; and those
of other Persons, are try’d by the Court of Mandarines, upon Application
of the Friends of the deceas’d, and put to death or otherwise punish’d
according to the Nature of their Crime, from whence we may judge, that
it is a very dangerous thing, to be of that Profession in this Country;
however there are but few Instances where the Physicians of private
Persons have been put to death; as a Pretence to the Knowledge of
Physick, rashness or Impudence, will not in this Country, obtain a
_Diploma_, none but Men of Merit are of the Faculty: These are obliged
to make Conscience of their Business; and dare not venture to try
Experiments; there are no Apothecary’s whose Interest the Doctor has
Occasion to consider in the _Recipe_; he prepares the Medicine himself,
and is too much interested in the Success, to give any more than he
thinks necessary; the Officinals in their Dispensary, are so few, that
you may write them all on a quarter of a Sheet of Paper; and he never
makes a Bill for his Druggs? but is paid so much a Visit, whether he
gives any Physick or not. Thus he is not under the least Temptation to
make an Apothecarys Shop of his Patient’s Belly; but carefully watches
Nature; and assists her when she is weak to the best of his Skill; but
leaves her to her self, when she is strong enough to bring about her
Designs without his Aid.

Before the present Tryal, there had not been one at _Pekin_, for near
twenty Years; which made this make a considerable Noise through the
whole Empire: The Patient happened to be the _Mandarin_ TONWIN; a Man of
great Authority, much esteemed and trusted by the Emperor; who had made
him Treasurer to his Army; by whom he was not less loved than by the
People in General; as he did Justice to the first, in their Pay, and
promoted the Interest of the last to the utmost of his Power; he was a
Friend to Mankind in General, but particularly to the virtuous, and
thought that Day Ill-spent wherein he had not given them Proof of his
Humanity and Bounty: The Death of this great Man, so universally
esteemed, was somewhat sudden; and his Physician was blamed by some,
tho’ not by the _Mandarines_ nearest Friends; however, it was wispered
about, that he had deviated from the Rules laid down by the great
Council of _Mandarines_; and by the Malice of the Doctor’s Enemies, the
Clamour became publick; in so much, that the great Council, ordered the
Register of the Case to be inspected; and the _Senescal_ was ordered to
draw up an Accusation against the Doctor; with a Copy of which he was
served and taken into Custody; and a Time appointed for a solemn Tryal
before that High Tribunal.

People were variously affected with the Preparation for the Tryal; some
thought the Doctor guilty; others thought him innocent; and this only
the Effects of the secret Machinations of his Enemies: Those of his own
Profession, for what Reason I am not able to learn, were his most open
Enemies; and thought by all to be his secret Accusers; however, the
Doctor seem’d not at all dismay’d; but hugg’d himself in reflecting on
his own Innocence, which comforted him the more, that he had not the
least Suspicion, that the high Tribunal, before which he was to be
try’d, would mix any Partiality in their Sentence. I have taken Care to
use as few _Chinese_ Terms of Law as possible; and have chose such
_English_ Words, as seem’d to come nearest to the Meaning of the
Original; and in order to make the whole more comprehensible to an
_English_ Reader, I have all along substituted some _English_ Forms,
where I could with Propriety, especially where they served to make the
Tryal more Intelligible.

[Illustration]




                                  THE

                               TRYAL, &c.


On the Day appointed for the Tryal, the great Council of Mandarins
assembled in a great Hall, in the second Court of the King’s Palace, the
President was seated on a Throne, under the Canopy of State; the Ensigns
of his high Office being carried before him, and attended by twenty four
Officers with drawn Sabres in their Hands, who stood round the Steps of
the Throne; the rest of the Mandarins were ranged on each Hand of him in
their Robes of Honour. Silence being commanded in the Name of the
Emperor, the Prisoner was brought to the Bar, to which he approached by
making three Obeysances, and then lay prostrate on his Face, till the
President commanded him to rise; acquainting him, that he had nothing to
fear but his own Guilt; for if that was not found in him, the Court
would not only acquit him, but load him with new Honours; after a short
Speech to this Purpose, Silence was again commanded, and the _Mandarin_
Secretary, was ordered to read his Indictment; which was conceived in
Words to this Effect.

You _Nosmoth_, Doctor of the Divine Science of Physick, stand indicted
before this Sovereign Court, at the Suit of our Sovereign Lord the most
High, mighty, and Puisant Emperor, _Abdaer_ Emperor to the World, Lord
of Vast Territories, Commander of Kings, and Beloved of the Sun, to whom
all are Slaves &c. &c. For, that you not having the fear of the Mighty
Gods before your Eyes, but being Instigated thereto, by the Suggestion
of the Black Angel, who Commandeth the Burning Lake; and with malice in
your Heart, and out of Envy and premedicated spite, to the Great
_Mandarin Tonwin_ Slave of our Great Emperor, and Treasurer of his
Invincible Armies, Didst on the Sixth Day, of the Second Month, of the
Year of our Empire, six thousand seven hundred and forty six, conspire
and contrive the Death of the said _Mandarin_; that is on one or other
of the Days of the said second Month; thou didst maliciously, with a
certain Instrument made of Steel, called a _Lancet_, stab the said
_Mandarin_ in the right and left Arm, and didst take from him, a large
Quantity of his Blood, to the amount of fifty seven Ounces; and likewise
didst prevail with the said _Mandarin_, by false unreasonable, and
scandalous Suggestions, to swallow certain Quantities unknown, of
poisonous Drugs, for sixteen or seventeen Days together; and likewise
caused during the said Space of Time, to be introduced into the _Anus_,
(Anglice A——se,) of the said Mandarin, a certain Machine, call’d a
Clister-Pipe, through which was squeezed a certain further Quantity of
poisonous Drugs, into his Bowels; and contrary to the Duty of your
Profession as a Physician, ordered the said Mandarin, then your Patient,
to eat of Meats and Drinks, improper for his Condition, and neglected to
administer such Medicines, as you knew by the Help of the great God
Paphor,[A] would have restored him to Health; by all which your Acts of
Malice, before-mentioned, you permitted the Angel of Death, to carry
away the said _Mandarin_; by which Means our great Emperor, has lost a
faithful Slave, the Empire an useful Member, and the distressed a great
Protector; this is your Accusation, are you Guilty or not Guilty.

-----

Footnote A:

  The God of Physick amongst the _Chinese_.


                      _Council for the Prisoner._

My Lord President, before we, that have the Honour to be of Council for
the Prisoner, can permit him to plead, we humbly beg Leave to offer some
Reasons to the august Court, why an Indictment in this Case does not lye
against our Client, we humbly apprehend, that the Consent of the Friends
of the Deceased, ought to have been specified in the Indictment, since
the great Mandarin, the Manner of whose Death is now in Question, is not
of the Blood Royal; there never has been an Instance before, where a
Physician has been tried, but upon the Application of the Friends of his
Patient: This is introducing an unheard of Practice, and subjecting the
Gentlemen of that Profession, to uncommon Hardships; who are already but
too much at the Mercy of the designing and malicious: We have an
Affidavit ready to read to your Lordships, sign’d by the nearest agnat
of the deceas’d Lord; wherein they disclaim the Prosecution, and express
their Satisfaction; both of the Skill and Integrity of our Client;
therefore we hope this august Court will quash this Indictment.


                       _Council for the Emperor._

My Lord, We are not a little surpriz’d to find the Council for the
Prisoner, make such an extraordinary Motion; when they must certainly
know, what gave Rise to this Tryal: The Prisoner at the Bar, in
Conversation with some of his own Profession, found that they did not
approve of his Method in this Particular; he was offended at their
pretending to find Fault with his Practice; which he asserted he could
justify; This produced a Dispute amongst them, in which he thought he
was scandaliz’d, and brought his Complaint before this Court, for the
Scandal: Your Lordships did not think fit to try the Cause upon that
footing, but to come at the Bottom of the whole Affair, order’d the
Emperor’s _Seniscal_ to prosecute in this Manner.

Thus the Tryal was at first brought on by the Doctor himself; which he
now declines, why? because it’s not in the Shape he projected, which
shews a more than ordinary Kind of Obstinacy in his Temper, an
Ingredient very unfit to compose a Physician.

But my learned Brother is likewise mistaken in Point of Law; Tho’ we
have not the Precedents he mentions; yet it’s founded on the Nature of
Things: The august Emperor has an Interest in the Life of every Subject;
and is in Reality in the Quality of Father to each of them; and often
more a Parent than their own natural Fathers: Does he not in all other
criminal Cases, prosecute without the Consent of the Party damag’d; why
may he not then in this? Unless the Physicians claim a Priviledge not
common to the rest of the Subjects of this Empire.

The Court, after a short Debate, overruled the Objection to the
Indictment; and ordered the Prisoner to plead; he thereupon pleaded not
guilty; and submitted to the Judgment of the Court.

Here the Court broke up and adjourned the farther hearing to next Day,
when the learned Body being again assembled, in Court, and the President
seated in the Formalites as before gave Orders for proceeding on the
Tryal, which was accordingly done by the Council for the Emperor, who
rising up opened the Case as follows.


                       _Council for the Emperor._

My Lord, the Prosecutors for his Imperial Majesty, are so far from
taking any rigorous Advantage of the learned Genman at the Bar, that
they are resolved to try the Cause upon his own State of the Case now in
the _Mandarin_ Secretary’s Hand: They are to suppose, that he has
according to his Duty, fairly stated the Symptoms of the Disease under
which his Right Honourable Patient laboured; and that he has given a
just Account of the Medicines he ordered to be administred in order to
effectuate a Cure; and from this his own State of the Facts, we hope to
convince this august Court, that the Doctor, has followed a Practice,
quite different from those prescribed by your Lordships in similar
Cases; apply’d Medicines improper for the Patient’s Distemper; and in
every Circumstance, acted, as if he rather intended, to increase the
Malady, than save his Patient’s Life; we shall make it appear, that the
Doctor instead of assisting Nature, has endeavoured to convert the Order
of Things, and obstructed her as much as lay in his Power; and we shall
likewise make it appear beyond Conjecture, that the Method used with the
Patient, during the Process of his Illness; hasten’d his End, much more
than the Fever it self: Out of Respect to the _Diploma_ issuing out of
the Court, which entitled the learned Gentleman to practice the divine
Science of Physick, we dare not attribute his Misconduct to Ignorance;
Charity forbids us to suppose it Malice; and good Manners hinders us to
use the Word Obstinacy; but to whatever Motive we may ascribe it the
Facts are incontestable, and the Effects have been fatal to the noble
Lord once an illustrious Member of this great Court.

Your Lordships, will observe from the Case, that a reumatick Fever,
attended with Pains in the Limbs and a sore Throat, was the Disorder
which afflicted the _Mandarin_ TONWIN, and there never was during the
seventeen Days which the Fever lasted, any thing else administred, to
obtain a Cure; but Bleeding and Purging; how far that was proper in the
Patients Circumstances, we shall very soon determine, we are to observe,
that from the Beginning of the Doctors Attendance, the Patient shewed a
great Disposition to sweat; especially in the Night-time, when it was
sometimes according to the Doctors Report, to Excess. This My Lord, we
look upon as an Attempt of Nature, to get rid of the malignant feverish
Matter, which oppress’d her, by Means of Perspiration; and is by all
Physicians, looked upon as the most common as well as the most natural
Crisis of all feverish Disorders; it was my Lord the Doctors Duty, to
have taken hold of this favourable Disposition of Nature, to have
assisted her, by giving Medicines which would have provoked
Perspiration: But he followed a quite different Course; he willfully
obstructed the Grand Physician; instead of encouraging the Sweat, he
made the Patient get out of Bed to avoid it; seem’d obstinately bent to
obtain a Cure by nothing but purging and bleeding.

As to the purging, he alledges the Patient was costive; we admit he was;
but does it follow from thence, that he must be purged for seventeen
Days together: The harder the Patient was to work upon, the greater
Reason the Doctor had to desist purging; especially using any Medicine
that would inflame the Bowels, which Jallop certainly does; purging
naturally weakens the strongest Constitution, without the Assistance of
an acute Distemper; but how weak must that Patient be, who suffer’d the
Weight of both, and another Evacuation as destructive of natural
Strength as the other, _viz._ Bleeding. As to the Bleeding, the Doctor
would insinuate from this Case, that he could not take too much Blood
from the Patient, since notwithstanding the monstrous Quantity taken,
the Vessels seemed overcharged, and it burst out at the Nostrils; but
the Doctor is not aware that two Causes absolutely different, will
produce the self same Effect as too great a Quantity of Blood may
produce an Hemorrage; and too small a Quantity the same; in the one Case
the Vessels are distended beyond their proper Tone, and in the other as
much below it; which was certainly the Case of the honourable Patient
unhappily the Subject of the present Debate; the Texture of the Blood
and Vessels were broken by the vast Quantity taken away, and a
Mortification of the Ulcers in the Throat naturally followed; as Nature
had not sufficient Strength left, to stimulate the Blood, and keep it in
its proper Motion; besides, the Regimen of Dyet prescribed by the
Doctor, was quite preposterous; Milk is naturally hot, and as it is of
the Nature of prepared Chyle, turns too soon to Aliment, to be proper in
those Diseases, which require the Patient to be kept low; upon the whole
your Lordship will be of Opinion, that Nature itself would have operated
a Crisis, had she not been interrupted by the Doctor; and that the
excessive Bleeding and Purging, only hastened the Approach of his Angel
of Death; therefore we hope your Lordships will find the Prisoner
guilty, in order to deter others from following their own Conceits, in
Cases where the Life of a Subject is concerned.


                      _Council for the Prisoner._

My Lord, the Charge against our learned Client, as open’d by my Brother
the Attorney General, is of a very deep Nature; but I hope we shall
convince this august Court, that the whole Prosecution is founded upon
Malice, and has no other Foundation; but the Envy of some of the Doctors
Brethren, who can not with any Patience, see any Reformation in their
old Practice; they are Men so wedded to old antiquated Opinions, and
superanuated Customs, that the strongest Reason cannot convince their
Understandings, or the most glaring Truths, have any Influence upon
their obstinate Minds, they are all a Parcel of old Women, who have
learned a Sett of Notions from their Grandmothers, which they argue upon
without Reason; and put in Practice necessarily on all Occasions, and
are now so old, that like Children they cannot walk without
Leading-strings.

Your Lordships are sensible, that its impossible to lay down any certain
Rules for the Practice of Physick; they must differ as Constitutions,
Times and Seasons, alter those Regulations, which might have been
reasonable in the Days of our Grandfathers, are now out of Date; the
Luxury of the present Age, the difference in Dyet, Exercise and
Diversions of the present Generation, have produced a new Catalogue of
Diseases, unknown to our Ancestors; and for which our antient Writers
have not so much as dreamed of a Cure now; when the old Women of the
Faculty meet with any such, they still persist in their old Recipes; and
by that means killed thousands of his Majesty’s Subjects every Day with
Impunity; and that out of Laziness, that they will not be at the Trouble
to search for new Cures to new Cases; now our Client has been more
indefatigable, he has found out not only a Cure more expeditious for our
old Native Distempers; but one that will totally eradicate all our
exotick Diseases with which this great Empire abounds; he does not mean
to keep this great Catholicon a Secret, he is proud of having this
Opportunity of divulging it to Mankind, for whose Benefit he has
laboured till he is grown expert in the _Profession_; his _Recipe_ is
short and eazy, its only _Bleed_ and _Purge_: He apprehends the
Reasonableness of this Practice, is like a self-evident Truth in the
Mathematicks; all Diseases flow from peccant Humours, being mix’d with
the Mass of Blood, which are so closely united to it, that they cannot
be discharged by Perspirations or other natural Secretions; _but if you
purge and bleed away all the Humours in the Body, we are sure none that
are peccant will remain Quod erat Demonstrandum_. This answers all
Cases, all Circumstances, Times, Seasons and Climates, and is an
Improvement in Physick, for which we hope our Client will be rewarded
with a Statue instead of a H——r.

They have made a deal of Pother about Sweating, but is it not plain,
that alone would not have served the Patient; when its well known that
in Spite of all the Doctors Endeavours to hinder it, it increased
immoderately, and yet produced no such wonderful Effects as they would
attribute to it: Grant that Bleeding and Purging weakens; so does
Sweating; our Client My Lord, apprehends, that if he had bled more
plentifully, he would at least have got the better of the Fever some
Days sooner than he did; the Patient might have died its true, but that
would not have been his Fault if he had used the Means to disburthen him
of his Blood, where the Malady lay; therefore we hope the Court will
acquit the Prisoner.

Its not the Custom in that Country for the Judge to give a Charge as
there is no Jury, but the Prisoner was ordered to withdraw, and in a
little Time he was called back and acquainted with his Sentence, which
we must beg of the Publick to excuse us from publishing.


                                _FINIS._

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                          Transcriber's Notes

 ● The following issues should be noted, along with the resolution:

  11   it was wispered about, that he had            _sic_: wispered
  12   before which he was [he was] to be try’d,     Removed.
  13   especially w[h]ere they served to make the    Added.
  14   S[c]ience of Physick, stand indicted before   Added.
  15   Instigated thereto, by the Sug[g]estion       Added.
  17   sign’d by the nearest agnat of the deceas’d   _sic_: agnat
  20   rigorous Advantage of the learned Genman      _sic_: Genman
  21   as if he rather inten[d]ed, to increase the   Added.
  21   practice the divine Science of Ph[i/y]sick,   Replaced.

 ● Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).



*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75845 ***