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The Rational Physician: Richard Whitlock's Medical Satires

CHRISTOPHER BENTLEY
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ELATIVELY little is known of the life of Richard Whitlock, physician, clergyman, and essayist. He was born in London in 1616, the son of a gentleman and merchant of the same name, educated at Oxford, where he took the degrees of B.A. (1635) and B.C.L. (1640), and was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, probably in 1638. Whitlock also studied abroad, matriculating in the Faculty of Law at the University of Leyden in 1643. Zootomia, his only published work, appeared early in 1654. After the Restoration, Whitlock was ordained and became successively vicar of Stowe, Buckinghamshire and Ashford, Kent, where he died in October 1666.1 Whitlock styles himself 'M.D.' on the title page of Zootomia, but apparendy he did not take this degree at Oxford; nor is his name in William Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians. He may have acquired his medical degree at Leyden, transferring from the Faculty of Law to the Faculty of Medicine; alternatively, there is a reference in Zootomia to an inscription 'writ over the Schools at Padua' which indicates that Whidock had some knowledge of that university. Both Leyden and Padua were much resorted to during the seventeenth century by Englishmen seeking medical qualifications. Wherever Whitlock took his M.D., it seems very probable that he spent part of the Civil War and Interregnum period as a practising physician; the mention in Zootomia of his 'Vexations' and 'Experienc'd Torture' in connection with the vagaries of patients can be taken no other way. The full title of his book, which has not been reprinted, is Zootomia, or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English: Briefly Anatomizing the Living by the Dead. With an usejull Detection of the Mountebanks of both Sexes (London, 1654). Whitlock has been strongly influenced by Robert
1. For a fuller, documented account of Whitlock's life, see Christopher Bentley, T h e life of Richard Whitlock,' Engl. Lang. Notts, 1972,10, 111-115.

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Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and to a lesser degree by the writings of Sir Thomas Browne.2 The work is a 'Morall Anatomy' consisting of more dian fifty essayssome scarcely longer than a paragraph, others running to more than thirty pageson such topics as friendship, time, fortune, the reason, death, books and readers, the excellence of women, hypocrisy, detraction, and prudent conduct in dangerous times. An aggressive intellectual, he also furnishes defences of the three arts of poetry, music, and painting, and an eloquent apology for universities and scholarship in response to Puritan criticism of the universities in the 1650s. Whitlock translates his Greek title as 'live Dissection' and the common theme of the essays is the dissecting and exposing of errors and prejudices in human behaviour. His professional interest in the theory and practice of medicine, apparent throughout the work, finds particular expression in four satirical essays on medical subjects. The four medical essays are printed together (pages 45 to 137) and, although prominendy mentioned on the tide page, form less than one sixth of the book. The first of these essays, 'The Quacking Hermaphrodite, or Petticoat Practitioner, Stript and Whipt,' is a spirited and amusing attack on supposedly charitable women who treat the sick without charge. A more serious tone is apparent in the second and longest of the four essays, ' The Peoples Physitian,' an indictment of mountebanks and medical empiricism. 'The Valentian Doctor exposes ignorant pretenders to genuine medical learning; while the last essay, 'Medicinall Observations & Characters, Containing 1. A Live Dissection of Selfe-killers, and their Accessories, or of Patients and their Tenders . . . ,' is, as its title suggests, a miscellany in which censure is widely distributed.
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The basic issue of Whitlock's medical essays is contained in Burton's observation, 'An Empiricke many times, and a silly Chirurgion, doth more strange cures, then a rationall Physitian.'3 Writing as a qualified doctor of medicine, Whidock is concerned to refute the empirics 'whose practise in Physick is nothing but the Countrey dance, call'd Hit or Misse'4 and who effect cures more by luck than art. He is unashamedly partisan,
a. Whitlock quota, with acknowledgement!, both Browne's Religlo medid and hi Pseudodoxia epidemica. Burton a not mentioned in Zootomia, but the work contains many unacknowledged borrowings from the Anatomy; see Christopher Bentley, 'The anatomy of melancholy and Richard Whitlock's Zootomia,' Renaiss. mod. Stud., 1969,13, 88-105. 3. Robert Burton, The anatomy of melancholy, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1624), p. 83. 4. Richard Whitlock, Zootomia (London, 1654), p. n j .

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and these are among the most contentious and polemic essays in Zootomia. Ridicule, abuse, and indignation characterize his approach to empirics, personified in 'The Peoples Physitian': In nothing more doth that many-headed (but slender-witted) judge, the Vulgar, betray their weaknesse of Judgement, dian in their choice liking, or Admiration of their Divines, and Physitians. For their Divine commonly, let his Doctrine be new, and his Chin not old; and he is compleady qualified. But would you know their Physitian? (On whose skill diough they venture no wagers on it, diey will dieir lives) Them diey will trust with uiose they would scarce trust for an Angell. And would you know die Attractions that are in him? Why, 1. He is a Native with an Outlandish Name; A Renegado from some Trade, or Profession, hee could not radge with: By whose Dulnesse, no Mystery, but scorned to be Master'd: and banckrupt of all waies to live, He resolves to kill; but his Valour would not endure the way of killing Folke against their "Wills, but setteth on a slier way of feeding Himselfe, (and die wormes too,) with bold, (because Lawlesse) and ignorant Adventures in Physick, in which, (after a Prentiship to die Plague, or some Disease, so Epidemicall, that his Miscarriages cannot be heard, for die Din of Knells) Opinion, and die commendations of poore inconsiderable People, (no more able to judge of worth, than to satisfie it;) maketh Him Free. . . .5 This man is a rogue, cheating gullible folk of their money, but female practitioners are no less culpable, even though they make no charge for their treatment: And have at thy Coat old Woman, (or young,) whose knowledge is Simples, Practise the misapplying of diem, Charity, Manslaughter, Creed, a ReceiptBook, and Library an Herball. Since you will be learning Propria qua; Maribus, Arts difficult enough for Men, still nibling At forbidden knowledge, pray be not so angry at the reading of diese Trudis, (or if you be, it matters not,) as jusdy I was, at the writing hereof. And first let me tell you, I do not so much wonder you retaine your Grandmodier Eves quality, (with this difference) she kil'd us all at one blow, and you kill us one by one, (as our excellent Poet said in anodier Case,) as diat there are any, (nay so many,) diat will Jugulum dare, be killed by die hands of a Woman. . . .6 The violence of the language in these passages and the parallels drawn with theology (in the equating of the people's physician with the people's divine and the description of medicine as 'forbidden knowledge' for women) remind us that Whitlock writes in a time of bitter religious and
5. Ibid., pp. 6a-<53. 6. Ibid., pp. 45-46. This and the preceding quotation are the opening passages of the two essays.

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political controversy carried on partly by pamphlet warfare. Invective was the mode of the age, even in scientific debate, and Whitlock is no exception. In his attitude to unorthodox medical practitioners, Whitlock, though in no sense an official spokesman, largely represents the views of that influential and quasi-governmental body, the College of Physicians, 'founded in London, with the avowed purpose of ridding England of quacks and raising the standards of practicing physicians,'7 and at this period still 'a stronghold of Galenism' and conservative medicine generally.8 Like the College, Whitlock is an enthusiastic supporter of professionalism; anyone who treats the sick must have the degrees that entitle him to practise legally and morally. Unlike all his professional colleagues, Whitlock is honest enough to recognize that these degrees must be the result of solid learning rather than 'some years of Duncery spent in a Gown,' and must be matched by correspondingly high standards of practice. In one of the nonmedical essays we find a plea (by implication) for professional conduct among physicians:
Come we to Physitians, and all Detractions Currents seem lost as in a Sea; no Profession being more inclinable to this iwomtda live Dissection of one another, Than that of Physitians, or Chirurgions. Here that Desideratum my Lord Bacon speaketh of, viz. Anatomia Comparata, or Dissection of infirm Bodies, is supplyed; for nothing more frequent than Comparative Openings of one another: their Deserts, with the nimble Perfunctorinesse of some Commentators (that skip over hard Places) but their Faults, Infirmities, or Miscarriages, wiui Descants no lesse tedious than malicious?

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In opposition to 'Empiricall Amethodists' and their total reliance on experience, Whitlock emphasizes in a thoroughly traditional manner the importance of reason and method (reason's application to medical practice). The concept of the 'rationall Physitian' informs his attack; he writes approvingly of 'sober, and rationall Physitians' and of 'the honest and
7. Phyllis Allen, 'Medical education in 17th century England,'/. Hist. Med., 1946,I, 116-117. 8. R. F. Jones, Atuimti and moderns: a study of the rise of the scientific movement in seventeenth-century England, 2nd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), p. 213. There ii, however, debate about the extent of the College1! conservatism. According to C. C. Gillispie, 'Phyjick and philosophy: a study of the influence of the College of Physicians of London upon the foundation of the Royal Society,' J. mod. Hist., 1947, if, 214, the physicians' writing of this time 'reflected a growing reliance upon clinical experience, ill-digested and little understood certainly, but with overtones of a Baconian revolt against Galenic authority. It was only in the literature inspired by the plague that the Royal College's contributions were practically indistinguishable in tone from the most superstitious and obscurantist writings of any "quacksalver" or Puritan divine." 9. Whitlock (n. 4), pp. 453-454-

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rationall Endeavours of a Physitian.'10 The extent to which irregular practitioners eschew the rational approach to healing is the measure of their ignorance and culpability. In place of study and reason the empiric substitutes 'Talkative Ignorance, and brazen Impudence,' and finds favour with the populace, so that his Non-sense be but fluent, and mixt with disparagement of the Colledge, Graduated Doctors, or Book-learned Physicians, against which they bring in their high and mighty word Experience. O! their experience of this long standing is the onely Abilities, cry they. Reason they call wrangling, or bookishnesse (whereas it is well known on a Rationall Scrutiny, that death is not more certain than diat Proposition in Heumius . . . Deadi widiout question, is die event of Immediodicall Experience). . . . u The grounds of the argument are clearly delineated here: institutionalized learning versus mere empiricism; and (as Whitlock insists) it is literally a matter of life and death. in Whitlock's survey of the fringe medicine of his day is comprehensive. In addition to his main attack on mountebanks of several kinds and both sexes, he finds occasion to refute such peripheral abuses as the related pseudosciences of astrology and uroscopy.12 Distinguished by the titles of 'Pisse-prophets' and ' Waterologers,' the uroscopists receive a particularly rough handling. Nor do unreliable patients ('self-executioners') and officious friends of the sick ('Accessories of this Man-slaughter') escape censure. His unrelenting hostility to unorthodox medical practitioners would, if considered in isolation, show Whitlock as an authoritarian dogmatist; but, as Zootomia amply demonstrates, he is a man of considerable intellectual complexity, and his attitudes to medicine are neither simple nor perhaps entirely consistent. Though ready enough to attack the practices of empirics and, by his insistence on reason as the essential quality in a physician, to decry their faith in experiment and experience, he is noticeably backward in defending established theories of medicine. In a moment of frankness he admits that 'the Theorie of Physick is for the most part
10. Ibid., pp. 133, <55. 132. 11. Ibid., pp. 8384. 12. Zootomia a cited by Hugh G. Dick, 'Studenti of physic and astrology: a survey of astrological medicine in the age of science,' J. Hist. Med., 1946, 1, 305, in a footnote lilt of seventeenth century works attacking uroscopy. Evidence presented in the article suggests that not all physicians rejected uroscopy and astrology as unambiguously as Whitlock; indeed, 'students in physic and astrology claimed sympathizers and patrons among regularly qualified doctors' (p. 416). Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at The University of British Colombia Library on May 14, 2012

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Conjecture, or Controversie.' These are not the words of a complete authoritarian; and when, in a striking phrase, he speaks of'that boundlesse Orbe of Physick,'14 we are reminded of Francis Bacon's sense of the limitations of existing knowledge. Whitlock's portrait of ' The Valentian Doctor' ('of whom the Italian Proverb saith, Doctor di Valenza, Longa Robba, Corta Scienza. So the Gown be long, no matter how short the Scholar')15 convincingly demonstrates the flexibility of his approach to medicine. This specimen is a qualified physician and apparently a member of the College of Physicians, for 'he scorneth to joyne with any that write not Doctor, or is not of the Colledge';16 but he is dangerously deficient in sound medical learning. His degrees were apparently gained by money or influence, or perhaps obtained obscurely overseas. In his dissection of 'this Ape Doctor, (the Foile of deserving ones)' Whitlock betrays real doubts on the adequacy of established medical training and formal qualifications: it is hard to say, whether the degree doth more misbecome him, or he dishonour it: for that of Dr. Primrose is an undeniable Trudi;... Hee that writeth Dunce on the Vespers or Eve of his Doctorship, doth not alter his Copy, and go out Scholler next day, though he commence Dr. nor is he the lesse learned, or Physitian, that hadi not wrapt his Abilities in Scarlet, which often times blusheth for the ignorance it coveredi, according to that following trudi in the same Audior, and Chapter. . . . many Medicasters, pretenders to Physick, buy die degree of Doctor abroad, and come home and sel it for the Lives and Monyes of dieir own Countrymen.17 Clearly, all is not well with the physicians themselves if such incompetents can attain to the respectability of professional status. The pseudophysician is especially blameworthy because his 'two Elements o f . . . Pride, and Ignorance' discredit both the physicians of whose number he claims to be, and the learning that they all profess. Whitlock has a high opinion of the profession; physic is natural philosophy in operation, 'a Liberall Art, (or Science).' It has been suggested that in the seventeenth century 'many physicians seem to have thought of themselves less as doctors than practicing natural philosophers whose field simply happened to be medicine.'18 Whitlock makes no such large claims
13. Whidock (n. 4), p. 133. 14. Ibid., p. 65. 15. Ibid., pp. 101-102. 16. Ibid., p. 10a. 17. Ibid., pp. 106-107. 18. Gillijpie (u. 8), p. 214.

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for himself, but his respect for natural philosophy is evident. The medicaster's defective natural philosophy is exposed in a passage containing some ingenious criticism of Aristode and an apparent reminiscence of Sir Thomas Browne. As for the true Abilities of our Valentian Dr. his natural Philosophy, what is it, (if Hee have tasted of Aristotles well,) but a Systeme of vulgar Errours? which hee endeavouredi to maintain against all opposers, with a sic dicit Aristoteles, diough, Qua dicit Aristoteles? what Aristotle doth say, is so much a question, diat Charity must assign, which limme of the contradictions (frequent in his works,) is most probably his Opinion, and most agreeing to the sence of so great a Master of Reason as in himselfe, (Detraction it selfe will confesse,) he was. But such Philosophers as this Dr. wrong an Author, (worthy of esteem for many things,) in misunderstanding his Truths; and diemsclves, in blindly beleiving die Errours of the compiler, or compiling of those works that bear his Name.19 Whitlock's sceptical approach to the text and canon of Aristotle reminds us that at about the same time Thomas Hobbes was questioning the antiquity and authorship of certain books of the Bible.20 Whitlock is not ready to reject Aristotle out of hand, but his attitude is definitely antidogmatic; it is 'a Philosophy too generall; to know too little, and beleive too much.'21 His medical essays contain many quotations from authorities in the field, but they are chosen eclectically, with the moderns predominating. Significantly, Galen is never cited and his followers are mentioned but once (and then in an ambiguous manner). A free exercise of reason, that essential quality of mind for the ancients, leads Whitlock away from an uncritical acceptance of their learning. The 'Doctor of Valentia is 'pertinaciously either a Galenist, or Paracebian, but he is too raw to be Judicious in either, too wilfull to be a Conciliator of both'; 22 the capable physician should use reason and judgement to find truth where he may. To rely entirely upon experience, as Whitlock claims the empirics do, is shown to be ridiculous and dangerous; but it finds a place, albeit a subsidiary one, in his list of qualities required in a physician, quoted with evident approval from Hippocrates ('Education even from youth, Naturall Abilities advanced by Study, confirmed by experience, &c.').23 The empirics, Whitlock points out, fall short even of their own standards, for they
19. Whitlock (n. 4), pp. 107-108. 20. Thomaj Hobbo, Leviathan, iii, 33 [C. B. Macpherson, ed (London, 1068), pp. 415-437]. 21. Whidock (n. 4), p. 108. 22. Ibid. 23. Ibid., p . 90.

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possess 'neither the compasse of Theory and Reason, or Rudder of experience (but broken and imperfect).'24 Whitlock does not attempt to reconcile the factions of medicine. He is utterly opposed to irregular practitioners (most of whom placed themselves to some degree under the patronage of Paracelsus); but his medical essays encourage the physicians to put their own house in order by excluding the ill-educated and by forbearing to adhere too firmly to any opinion or authority on the grounds of mere antiquity. The rational physician should follow reason in his selection of authorities, as well as in his practice. In medical matters Whitlock exercises the 'Liberty ofJudgement' and 'Independency of Reason that he defends so earnestly elsewhere in
Zootomia.
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Whitlock's medical essays are written as Theophrastan Characters. This minor genre of English literature is a seventeenth century innovation, and one that enjoyed considerable popularity during the first half of that century. It has been suggested that the vogue for Character-writing stems from Isaac Casaubon's edition of Theophrastus' Charactersfirst published in 1592 and expanded in an edition of 1599in which the original Greek is accompanied by a Latin translation.25 The first English collection of Characters written in imitation of Theophrastus, Joseph Hall's Characters ofVertues and Vices, appeared in 1608, and the acknowledged masters of the formJohn Earle and the group of professional writers publishing under the name of Sir Thomas Overburywere active in the following two decades. During the Civil Wars the Character was pressed into the service of the national controversies; and by 1665 the form had apparently degenerated into a school exercise, as 'Rules for making it' are included in a manual for young scholars published in that year. A Character is defined as 'a witty and facetious description of the nature and qualities of some person, or sort of people,' and the apprentice Character-writer is instructed to 1. Chuse a Subject, viz. such a sort of men as will admit of variety of observation, such be, drunkards, usurers, lyars, taylors, excise-men, travellers, pedlars, merchants, tapsters, lawyers, an upstart gendeman, a young Justice, a Constable, an Alderman, and the like.
24. Ibid., p. 89. 25. Benjamin Boycc, The Theophrastan Character in England to 1643 (Cambridge, M a s . , 1947), PP- 53-54-

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2. Express their natures, qualities, conditions, practices, tools, desires, aims, or ends, by witty Allegories, or Allusions, to diings or terms in nature, or art, of like nature and resemblance, still striving for wit and pleasantness, together with tart nipping jerks about their vices or miscarriages. 3. Conclude with some witty and neat passage, leaving them to the effect of their follies or studies.26 These rules are really a summary of the methods and subject matter of the best Character-writers, and it is surprising that such an obvious victim as the mountebank is omitted from the list of suggested subjects. Many Character-books contain some medical types: the Overbury collection includes the Character of 'A Quacksaluer and a catalogue of mock-remedies entitled 'The Mountebankes Receipts'; Earle writes on 'A meere dull Phisitiari and, patronisingly, on 'A Surgeon'; while, to redress the balance, Thomas Fuller's The Holy State (1642) has ' The good Physician.' Though Whitlock does quote (in another part of Zootomia) Casaubon's influential edition of Theophrastus, his medical Characters seem chiefly indebted to these English writers, and he adopts many of their stylistic devices. Most Character-writers cultivate a close-packed style with rigorous economy of words, andas if to emphasize this economyoften use the title of a Character as the opening words of its first sentence. Whitlock is far less sparing with words, but his third Character begins:
The Valentian Doctor
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Is one that hadi done his Exercises in Fees, or by some superiour Fiat is created Doctor; but for die Participle Doctus (die Abilities requisite for die Profession) he mayflinghis new Worships Cap at it: for he came to Doctor (it may be) per saltum, or say some years of Duncery spent in a Gown, never had any diing in him Magister Artium, but his belly; covetousnesse or necessity maketh him now turn GoMfinder in a lesser volume (by how much close stools are lesse dian diose odier Mines) that is Physin'an. He saw money might be got by the Profession, be he able or no; dierefore his Degrees he is resolved to get: Doctor he will be, though but Doctor of Valentia. . . .21 Here Whitlock has followed his models closely: the Character is introduced with the typical defining phrase, 'Is one that...'; the movement of the prose is rapid and uneven; and a somewhat obscure and scatological wit is prominentall common features of the English Theophrastan Character.
26. Ralph Johnson, The scholars guide from the acdienct to the university (London, 1665), p. 15. 27. Whitlock (n. 4), p. 101.

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Whitlock also adopts the conventional ending of the Character form ('some witty and neat passage, leaving them to the effect of their follies or studies'), and dismisses' The Peoples Physitiari in this manner: 'If you would heare more of this rare Physitian and his Feats (for I am sick of him) enquire of sad Families, and merry Grave-makers, in a Church-yard Term.' 2 8 The ending of 'The Quacking Hermaphrodite' is a more sustained piece of satiric virtuosity: did the Country keep its Bills of Mortality, as the City doth, wee might in both of themjusde in Shee-Physitians among the S.S. for a Disease, as surely Willing as Surfet, Stone, &c. or any other in the Bill. Behold, a Charity, not so much to the Patient, as unemployed Sextons, or Curates, that (like Lopez,) lye sick of a thin Stipend, and an everlasting Parish. Such a Physitian in a Parish (any thing big) and the Bels shall scarce lye still. Land-Lords of Copy-holds (by lives) would feele the sweetnesse of their Neighbour-hood too. Beleive me they would be of no small use to purge a Common-wealth, without the expence of Hemp. Sicken a Malefactor with conviction, and mittimus him to the practise of a Shee Doctor, and you heare no more of him, he troubleth the Common-wealth no more: and all upon their owne charitable Account and charge. It were not amisse if they had a Colledge, shall I say, or Hall, (help me Invention!) no. Shambles erected for this Sister-hood of Physitians, whither any unequally Yoaked might repaire for Redresse: The ill Wived, or ill Husbanded Wretches might here be comforted; or indeed any (to whom life it selfe is as bad as either of the former) might change, even a World, if weary of this: and were not this a charity? but to sum the danger of it without an Irony. I am confident a practising Rib shall kill more then the law-bone of an Asse; and a Quacking Dalilah than a valiant Sampson. Though most Character-writers would adhere to the third person singular, Whitlock shows a considerable mastery of the form. The accumulation of bizarre and paradoxical ideas invests the she-physicians with a grotesque importance; in a manner anticipating John Dry den's verse satires, the victim is built up, the more thoroughly to be demolished. The casual allusion to Lopez (a character in Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's comedy, The Spanish Curate) relates this specialized satire to a wider field of comic writing. Several phrases ('wee might,' 'Beleive me,' 'you heare no more of him,' 'were not this a charity?') seem designed, in rhetorical fashion, to create intimacy between the satirist and his reader. Whitlock may discard irony in the last sentence, but a sure grasp of witty metaphor remains; and

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28. Ibid., p. 100. 29. Ibid., pp. 60-61.

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his inventiveness and vigorous expression are impressive throughout the passage. The complete Characters, however, are less successful literary achievements than such short extracts suggest. Whitlock's wavering between third person singular and plural, discernible throughout these essays, is one sign of his indifference to some of the conventions of the Character. Of more significance is the length of his Characters: the longest, 'The Peoples Physitian' contains approximately 8,000 words, while even the shortest, 'The Valentian Doctor,' has approximately 1,600 words. (By contrast, the Overburian Character, 'A Quacksaluer,' contains about 410 words, and Earle's 'A tneere dull Phisitian and 'A Surgeon 500 and 310 words respectively.) Whitlock's medical Characters are expanded by digressions and quotations. The structure of The People's Physitian demonstrates the resultant diffuseness. Some opening remarks on the weak judgement of the populace lead into a Character of the empiric, which soon digresses into a long, erudite attack on uroscopy occupying about half the essay; then the Character is resumed and completed. Quotations, usually from Latin treatises on medical subjects, abound in these four essays, as in the rest of Zootomia. Whitlock's purpose is didactic as well as satiric, and he shows a constant need for the support of medical authorities. These quotations retard the movement of his prose, and the flow of witso essential to the Character is often interrupted. In 'The Valentian Doctor Whitlock seems more mindful of the conventions of Character-writing, but even this Character contains several passages from Latin authors, together with an English translation. Such a practice would not be out of place in a conventional medical work, but it accords badly with the literary form Whitlock has chosen. According to an authority on the genre, 'many an English writer seems not to have conceived of the essay and the Character as literary forms distinct from each odier.'30 Whitlock's 'Medicinall Observations & Characters' are a blend of essay and Character, with elements of the learned treatise and some discursive philosophizing in the manner of Burton. In his description of the tricks of empirics there are even reminiscences of the coney-catching pamphlets of Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe a generation earlier. Often the urbane wit of the Character-writer gives place to railing and abuse: All that falsely usurp this tide of Physitian, and practise it, to the sad cost of
30. Boycc (n. 35), p. 81.

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many; what are they but the Scum of the people, take off their Visards, and underneath appeare Wicked Jewes, Murtherers of Christians, Monks, abdicant of their orders, &c. Unlearned Chymists, conceited Paedagogues, dull Mechanicks, Pragmaticall Barbers, wandring Mountebancks, Cashiered Souldiers, indebted Trades-men, Husband-men that have been ill Husbands, Toothlessewomen, fudling Gossips, and Chare-women, talkative Midwives, &c. In summe . . . the scum of Mankind.31 This piece of invective recalls Burton's style, the more so as it is translated from a Latin author; and Whitlock's medical Characters have a similarity to the amorphous near-Characters that occur in the Anatomy. As in Burton, illustrative anecdotes, authorial comment, and digressive generalizations are freely interspersedall diluting the Character element in these essays. Whitlock has a good command of colloquial language and an amusing facility in parodic reproduction of dialogue; but the result is still a weakening of the Character form by the introduction of extraneous social satire. And now the Doctor is come, let us see his entertainment: why it is with, welcome Sir. I made bold to trouble you: which I had done sooner, but that I thought it would have wore away: or at least my Neighbours Surfet water (that hath done many good) might have saved any further trouble: and now the Doctor beginneth to be the Patient, such Trians of Patience do salute Him. 1. Some would only know, whether hee thinketh they shall withstand it or no. I would be loath, saith one, to Physick it too much. I hope it is but a cold, if I could but sweat or sleep, I doubt not but I shall do well. 2. A second he would willingly take somewhat, but nothing but what is comfortable and you must not deny Him to make him sleep: he alwayes, when he hath been ill, found nothing did Him so much good as Rest. Talk to him of any Vomit, or Purge, alas his Body is too week, he never took any sick Physick in his life: and humbly conceiveth this no fit time to begin: and a Clyster, no though he dye for it, he cannot think of it: if the Doctor wil have patience, (as he must) the Patient wanteth but Pen and Ink, and he will prescribe 32 his Physick An important part of Whitlock's argument is that 'Were there not foolish Men, there would be no Cunning Women (or empirics of either sex); but while satire directed generally against ' Mountebanck-making Patients' may help to make this point, the force of the attack on the satirist's primary objectsthe empirics themselvesis diminished. An argumentative ap31. Whitlock (n. 4), p. 93. 32. Ibid., pp. 120-121.

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proach is apparent throughout these essays: most Character-writers build their portraits by observation and statement; Whitlock prefers argument and persuasion: Would men put on their considering caps (they might sooner put off their sick caps) and did but know (as Ingenious Physitians do) what a dangerous Syllogisme meer experiments make, he would confesse, that from having cured the same man, in the same case, by the same meanes, cannot be drawne argument or direction sufficient for the future, since the very time may so alter a man, that there must be variation allowed in die Remedy, for alteration of temper and constitution; nay, in the same Disease, what in die beginning may be remedy, in die state and vigour may be poyson, and die same Potion diat in its due place administered, may doe die Patient good, in a wrong, may do die Heire or Executors good,33 This may be sound logic and good medicine, but it is certainly alien to the Character form and perhaps even to the essay. A reasoned appeal has replaced the confident authority of the satirist. Whitlock, however, is more interested (and perhaps more competent) in medicine than in literary form. An oddly self-consciousalmost amateurishmanner is sometimes detectable in his handling of his chosen form, suggested by such phrases as 'How easily might I here digresse in Satyre' and 'I passe to the other qualifications of the peoples Physitian.'34 A more serious limitation is his narrowness of vision; unlike the best Character-writers he offers us not a revelation of human nature but merely an exposure of fraudulent and dangerous practices. Literary considerations take second place to professional ones, and the physician masters the satirist. Propagandist literature necessarily simplifies: Whitlock writes on the assumption that a she-physician's charity is only ostentation, and that an empiric practises solely for money. The moral natures of his victims are ignored, and the reader must be content with a description of their dishonest dealingswhat they do, not what they are. Only in the more complex analysis of ' The Valentian Doctor is there some attempt at a genuine enquiry after motive. Of course, Whitlock has gained certain advantages by writing on medicine through the medium of the Character. A tendency for his essays to become a collection of miscellaneous observations, attacks, and arguments is checked, and they are given at least a semblance of unity. Subject matter that at best is not free from the suspicion of partisan interest, and
33. Ibid., p. 116. 34. Ibid., pp. 46, 82.

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at its worst is tediously technical, acquires an attractive veneer. As a physician Whitlock knows the necessity of sugaring the pill, of making his truths more palatable by presenting them in the shape of satiric Theophrastan Characters. In the preface to Zootomia his allusion to the medical essays is a defence of comic form: For the Pleasantnes ofsom of these Tell-troths, let the world excuse me, if I play with my Vexations, and turn my Experienc'd Torture to Delight, as knowing no better Revenge on (no nor Cure of) vulgar Stupidity, (specially in Concernments o/Physick, and their own Health) thanRidentem dicere verum, to tell them
Trudis pleasantly, since it is the constant humour of the people to love the Jigg better, than any good or serious part of the Play.35
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Evidence from the troubled years of the mid-seventeenth century suggests a real need for Whitlock's 'usefull Detection of the Mountebanks of both Sexes.' Ever since its foundation in 1518 one of the chief functions of the College of Physicians had been the suppression of unlicensed and irregular medical practitioners of all kinds; and this task was made much harder by the disruption of authority during the middle decades of the century. According to the recent historian of the College, 'during the Civil War . . . the unlicensed practitioners pretty certainly had an easier time. Few accusations are recorded and fewer punishments. Only four women appeared in seven years.'36 Though the College may have temporarily lost the means to enforce its regulations, it had not lost the will: 'In 1655/6 there was a general discussion on how to repress the empirics and the unlicensed physicians, distinguished as two separate classes.'37 In the absence of effective policing by the College, one way to attack the charlatans was by exposing them in print. Whitlock's freedom from rigid Aristotelianism sets him apart intellectually from the orthodoxy of the College, but in practical matters their interests coincide. In a work not primarily concerned with medicine, the 'M.D.' of his title page is conspicuous. He is a conscious, self-appointed spokesman for the educated and the professional against all ignorance and amateurism in medicine, a defender of 'that requisite knowledge, which distinguisheth the Physicianfromthe Mountebanck.'38 Where he parts company from the greater number of his
35. Ibid., [tig. off]. 36. Sir George Clark, A history of the Royal College of Physicians of London, a vols. (Oxford, 196466), 1, 276. 37. Ibid,, 1, 289. 38. WHtlock (n. 4), p. 46.

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fellow physicians is in his insistence on critical rationalism as a check to dogmatism of any kind. The prefatory matter in Zootomia includes a commendatory letter by Jasper Mayne, eulogistic verses by Martin Lluelyn,39 and (in some copies) an address by Sir John Berkenhead entitled "The Publisher to the Reader.' The presence of these contributors makes more concrete certain social, professional, and political affiliations suggested by Whitlock's life and writings. Like Whitlock, all three were Oxonians andwith varying degrees of outspokennessroyalists. Lluelyn, who was born in the same year as Whitlock, had published a volume of poems in 1646 and had contributed a poem to die English translation (1653) of William Harvey's De Generatione Animalium. He practised medicine in London diroughout the Interregnum, and in 1653 received an Oxford M.D. and became a candidate of the College of Physicians.40 Except for diese prefatory pieces, contemporary criticism of Zootomia is almost nonexistent, but an errata sheet appended to die Cambridge University Library copy of John Collop's Poesis Rediviva (1656) contains this statement:

Ingenuity is so much a stranger to the Presse, that it hath forgot what it is to be ingenious, and tainted with ignorance infects the most ingenious pieces. For the Presses faults the Author desires a pardon, who scorns to intreat it for his own: since his book dares appeal to Dr. Broum, Dr. Scarburg, Dr. Mayn, Dr. Whitlock, a Cleaveland, and a Berkenhead, and all those glorious stars, the effluxions ofwhose wits appear more Conspicuous in this darker age of ignorance 41 Interestingly, Whidock appears again with Mayne and Berkenhead, and Sir Thomas Browne and Sir Charles Scarburgh figuring in the listhe is also associated with two distinguished physicians. Like Whitlock and Lluelyn, Collop was a literary physician and a royalist sympadiiser; Poesis Rediviva includes medical poems whose subject matter and style suggest that he may have been influenced by Zootomia. These are die only indications of Whitlock's professional standing and associates. Compared with Sir Thomas Browne, 'diat great and true Amphibium' of literature and medicine, Whidock is a minor figure; but he provides valuable insights
39. T o hii Ingenious, knowing Friend, The Author.' The vena are not signed, but a copy of Zootomia in the Guildhall Library, London, containing many manuscript corrections and additions which are almost certainly by Whidock, identifies the writer as 'M. Iiuellin: M.D.' 40. Dictionary of national biography, under Lluelyn or T.lndlyn, Martin (1616-1682); Douglas Bush, English literatim In the earlier seventeenth century, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1962), p. 609. 41. John Collop, Poems, Conrad Hilberry, ed. (Madison, Wis., 1962), p. 29.

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on the concerns of a cultured physician in a troubled age, and his rigorous professionalism anticipates many developments in the organization of English medicine during the following two centuries.
Department of English University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales Australia

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