CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL,

AND

ENGLISH PHYSICIAN;

The Preface

Disease is undoubtedly the most fatal enemy of mankind. To prevent its approaches, or to overcome its attacks, is perhaps the most important concern of our lives; and an acquisition that appears only attainable by the most natural and simple means. For this purpose, Mr. Nicholas Culpeper's ENGLISH PHYSICIAN seems particularly well adapted; since it resorts, for every mode of cure, to that infallible source prepared by God and Nature, in the vegetable system; whence flow spontaneously the genuine virtues of medicines, diffused universally over the face of the whole earth, where nothing grows in vain.

Some authors have laboured to prove, that the difference of opinion betwixt Culpeper and his brother physicians originated entirely from his own surly and vindictive disposition. But whoever has taken the pains to investigate the controversy will find this assertion most remote from the truth. He found the practice of physic directed more by terms of art than by principles of nature; and governed more by avarice than by a genuine desire of restoring health and strength to the desponding patient. He condemned this practice, by exposing the wickedness of some and the ignorance of others; and though he had the whole medical corps to encounter, yet such was the force of his reasoning, and the superiority of his abilities, that they submitted to the sentence he had passed upon them, without the formality of a defence.

It is not the humane and liberal professors of physic or surgery whose practice deserves censure, but that mercenary tribe of pretenders to physic who now pervade the kingdom, and, like a swarm of locusts from the east, prey upon the vitals of mankind. These monsters in the shape of men, with hearts callous to every sentiment of compassion, have only fees in view. Governed by this sordid principle, they sport with life, unmoved amidst the bitter anguish and piercing groans of the tortured, whom, when too far gone for human aid to restore, they abandon to despair and death.

To prevent as much as possible the growth of so enormous a traffic, it requires that the practice of physic, instead of being cloathed in a mystic garb, should be put upon a level with the plainest understanding, and the choice and quality of our medicines be rendered as obvious and familiar as our food. Instinct, in the brute species, furnishes this discrimination in the most ample and surprising manner; and in the primitive ages of the world, when men were rich in years, and blessed with length of days, it was the custom to consult,individually, their own complaint, and their own cure. To restore this primitive practice, was the godlike aim of the immortal Culpeper, when he compiled this invaluable work; for since it was the intention of our Beneficent Creator to provide a natural remedy for all our infirmities, so it would be derogatory to his attributes to suppose the knowledge of them limited to a few, or confined to a small class of his creatures. On the contrary, this knowledge lies open to the wayfaring man - it grows in every filed, and meets us in all our paths; and was mercifully given to alleviate the pangs of disease - to eradicate the pestilential seeds of infection - to invigorate the constitution, and to strengthen nature - eventually reducing the perils to which we are exposed, and making rosy health the companion of our lives!