A REPLY TO Mr. Richard Bolton OF BRAZEN-NOSE-COLLEGE in OXFORD; Occasioned by his presuming to Dedicate His Last Piece TO Dr. CHARLES GOODALL, One of the Censors of the College of Physicians.  
By CHARLES LEIGH, Doctor of Physic.  
LONDON, Printed for John Sprint, at the Bell in Little-Britain, 1698.   

A LETTER from the Learned and Reverend Dr. Charles Goodall, one of the Censors of the College of Physicians, and Physician to the  in London.  
This to his Honoured Friend, Dr. Leigh, at his House in Manchester, Lancashire. London, December 6. 1698.  
SIR,  
YOUR Letter of the 3d of this Month I received the last Night, and do return you my Thanks for it, and own your writing to me about Mr. Bolton's Book, as a particular Favour; he having by no means obliged me by his rude and unmannerly Reflections upon you; who, I am sensible, are not therein treated either as a Graduate Physician, a Gentleman, or a Scholar. The Language and Reflections I own to be such, as no Man of good Breeding, much less any Censor of the College of Physicians, would pass with an Imprimatur. I do believe that Mr. Bolton had merited the Favour of many Members of the College, by two little Books which he published, and were licenced by the Precedent and Censors, being looked upon as Specimens' of Industry and Ingenuity, and therefore to be encouraged: But wherein he hath exceeded the Bounds of Learning and Modesty, he must answer for his Folly.  
As to his writing against Mr. Colbatch, I must own that I did encourage him thereto, he having so rudely treated the Universities, College of Physicians, and the most learned Men of our Faculty, and likewise published and defended such an erroneous Hypothesis, and raised such a dangerous Superstructure thereon, which I fear will prove fatal to many, if made use of by weak and unthinking Physicians. Yet notwithstanding Mr. Colbatch hath deserved ill of learned Men, and the Public, for the Reasons now given, yet I cannot commend Mr. Bolton's treating him in the manner which he hath done; which was so far from my Approbation and Goodliking, that, at the same time I encouraged him to answer Mr. Colbatch's Books, I earnestly requested him to read the learned and ingenious Mr. boil's Book against Dr. Bentley (with Care and Observation) and to imitate (as much as he could) that excellent Author, in his Reply to Mr. Colbatch. But how he hath herein followed my Advice, or the Original proposed, I leave you and all learned Men to judge.  
I am truly sorry, that in the Particulars you mention, he hath not only disobliged me, and many others, but highly injured his own Reputation, which I do believe, a little time will make him sensible of. Sir, I have herein given you a short and faithful Account of this Affair, which I hope will be satisfactory to you: And if in any thing I can father serve you, 〈◊〉 pleased to command,  
SIR, Your most humble Servant, Charles Goodall.   

THat he may be satisfied he is not the Man he takes himself for, I have printed Dr. Good●●●'s Letter to me, and given him a Reply to ●●s last Piece, so far as relates to myself. In ●●at Reply I found such illiterate Arguments, ●uch mean and trifling Reflections, such a pro●ound Ignorance of the Latin Tongue, I once concluded to have been silent, being assured ●●e Piece was a better Answer to itself, than c●uld be given from another And. But since s●me Persons were pleased to allege, that it w●s patronised by one of the Censors of the College of Physicians, I have therefore, to vindicate both him and myself, made these pub●●●k.  
When the most abstruse Points in Philosophy 〈◊〉 reduced to dogmatical Assertions, and the ●●st exalted and useful Topics in Physic 〈◊〉 become the sportive Rattles of unthinking Striplings; when Metaphorical Suppositions ●ust pass for Anatomical Demonstrations, and arrogance and Noise are the Weapons of invincible Confutation; when Impudence and scurrility are Arguments of Proof against all ●●●ional Attacks, it's high time to tell the Youth, 〈◊〉 has erred, to reject the use of Lenitives, and 〈◊〉 to more potent Applications. With what Assurance does he make it evident, that th● Animal Spirits move slower than the Blood? He sure never entertained any Notion 〈◊〉 Thought, had no abstracted Speculations of i●● Velocity. Their unaccountable Agility in voluntary Motion, evidently demonstrates th● contrary. In the first place he asserts, but 〈◊〉 where proves, the Animal Spirits to be a swee● oily Mucilage. Now, by the buy, Did 〈◊〉 ever see or taste the Animal Spirits? were they a sweet oily Mucilage he might do both. Others yet with the most accurate Glasses coul● never discover them. What need I had of Sp●ctacles I know not as yet, I thank God for i●● But I am sure to make such Discoveries as a●● there asserted, bespeak him to be one of th● greatest Virtuosos the World ever yet has seen● And I do again tell him, that did there such 〈◊〉 Mucilage as he mentions, circulate through th● Nerves, the Nerve would either swell abov● the Ligature, or by the Section of a Nerv● the Mucilage might be squeezed from it. An● what he offers to those Arguments is but a pitiful Evasion, and no Solution at all: For if th● Motion of the Mucilage be so slow as he a●serts, it is not to be imagined, that upon th● cutting of a Nerve, it should make so quick an● instantaneous a return through its Branches, a●● that it should not be possible to discover i●● For by this way of arguing, he might as we●● tell me, a Snail will make a swift Newmark● Courser, or a Man of his poor pitied pitch o● Learning a profound Philosopher. Dr. Lister● I guess, will not thank him for what he has sai● in answer to the Controversy betwixt us two; for in my instancing in the Kennel-pit-water at Haigh in Lancashire, it was not to prove an Acid in Water, which, he says, no body ever denied, but to prove there was perfect concocted Vitriol in Water; which was what the Dr. denied. His Remarks and Quibbles about my Notions of hot Baths, are not worth answering: And I do again affirm, That Hypothesis was never before laid down by any; and what some had formerly alleged was, That the Heat in those Waters was caused either by Fermentation of Sulphureous, and other Heterogeneous Particles, or by Subterraneous Fires; both of which in the Exercitations I have fully confuted. Wherefore I assigned a third Cause (viz.) a Collision of Sulphureous Particles. But I find he has either not the Sense, or Sincerity, to distinguish betwixt Fermentation and Collision: And indeed, I think, both the Instances he has produced, do him no Service. The Parallel does not hold: unless he can demonstrate, that, as the Fire heats the Water, the Water makes the Fire to burn; and I think he has a Stock of Ignorance and Impudence to attempt it. With what an accurate Ken, with what pungent Sophistry, with how admirable a turn of a Feculent Brain did he discover Ingenium Acerrimum to be a sour Wit? What could produce such a singular Construction, but the Dawnings of immature Conceptions? But now to expiate for so awkard a Construction, he proceeds to a more conspicuous Dilemma, falls soul upon Case and Rule, and magisterially affirms, Opinioni haud naturae se Credidit, to be false Latin: This he asserts in a notorious Paraphrase, bids Defiance to Grammar and Authority. The Unintelligible World, till now, mistook the Precedent was delirious with luxuriant Thought, and drew erroneous Charts of imagined Shores; not Cicero, Seneca, nor Terence, with all their Train of Oratory; not the three Sons of Parnassus, Horace, Virgil, and Ovid, the Delight and Glory of Augustus' Court, when the Roman Tongue had acquired its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, shall be Standards to this renowned Trifler. But to set him strait in this, I shall lay before him the following Authorities. In the first place, the Sentence he recites out of my Exercitations, is an Expression in Seneca's Epistles; whose Authority alone had been sufficient to vindicate me, had I had no other: But to show him Credo frequently governs an Accusative with a Dative Case, let him take notice of the following Quotations. Credere se Neptuno, is a Sentence in Plautus, Credere se Coelo praepetibus pennis. Virgil; and these Words, I think, are applicable to him; for I doubt not but he has a Head Chimerical enough to afford him Wings to fly with, if the Lapwing would but have Patience to stay till the Shell dropped off his Head. Credere suum animum alicui, Terence. Credere uni omnia, Cicero. Libris Arcana Credere, Horace. Veritus se Credere nocti, Ovid. Wherefore for shame, let him not set up for an Author, but quit the Press, Oxford and his Addresses to the College, and return to the Grammar School at Chester; and by that means he will leave us room to think he may in time be something; and perhaps he may by frequent Lashing be qualified for the University. And since in his usual Method of acting the Plagiary, he has stole a Receipt for me, let him take this Advice: Before he writes, let him think; afterwards consult his Friends; and to prevent a Relapse of his Distemper, then burn his Papers: He then, like a rash unthinking Adventurer, may expire in Fire and Smoke, and not become the dishonourable Refuse of a Common-Shoar. His carping at the two Words pro me, farther confirms his Ignorance in the Latin Tongue; for as I use them, they are frequently used by Plautus and several modern Authors, particularly Dr. Lister; so that if he blames me, he must likewise blame the Doctor, and not shelter himself from a just Rebuke; because I had formerly opposed the Doctor: And when ever I see an Answer to those Arguments alleged against the Doctor's Hypothesis, I shall freely ask his Pardon, if I be found in an Error; if not, I hope I have the Liberty of Thought. I do believe the Doctor will be ashamed to be quoted by such a Trifler. But, upon my Word, it showed him to be a Man of invincible Courage, to be so daring as to encounter those two Words Pro me; and had he never exceeded the Pronouns and Prepositions, he had eased the World of a great deal of Jargon, and kept himself in his due Limits; and so the Crane and the Pigmies might have ●ought about the Knots in a Bulrush. Another Expression of mine he carps at is In proclivi est; where he says it ought to be In promptu est: but I shall produce him a parallel Sentence from Terence, and translate it for him, since I see he cannot do it; and it is this, Id faciam in proclivi quod est, per me stetisse ut credat: Where by those Words In proclivi quod est, is meant no more than what is easy or ready, which is in the Sense I writ it.  
He likewise quarrels with these Words, Sic Regero '; and in that I tell him as I express it, it is constantly taken in Philosophy; that is, I reply thus. His Instance from Dr. Willis can in no wise rescue him from the false Experiment he imposed upon the World, since the Doctor never asserted such a Paradox, and would have scorned to impose such a Falsity upon us. The Matter of Fact still stands Evidence against him: The Doctor's Notions of Fevers are grounded upon his Principles of Fermentation, which is quite contrary to what I have asserted: For I have made it highly probable that Fevers and inflammatory Distempers are not caused by Fermentations, but by Saline Particles coagulating the Serum or Lympha of the Blood; but, Poor Man, to serve a turn, how miserably can he mangle that Author? and when he finds himself at a Pinch; then, like a most barbarous Tartar, defaces and ruins the spacious Plains he was foraging in, and strait removes to a remoter Clime: Whence it is evident my Notions of Fevers and Inflammatory Diseases could not, as he alleges, be borrowed from Dr. Willis: Wherefore to satisfy his Curiosity, I will allow him, Dr. Willis lived before I did; But do affirm, I have not in any one thing, which I have laid down as an Hypothesis, borrowed from that Eminent Author. But I can assure him this, barring his own fictious and false Foundation of all his Works, if each Bird plucked its own Feathers from him he would be exposed as naked to the World as he came there. In answer to that which he alleges, that my Exercitations were printed at a private Press in Oxford; and that they were denied an Imprimatur from the College, is notoriously false; for in the first place they were printed at Litchfield's Press, which is a public one, and allowed of by the University. In the second Place, the College was never solicited by me for an Imprimatur; because in one of the Exercitations I had opposed one of the Censors, and therefore concluded it might be esteemed ill Manners to desire an Imprimatur from them.  
His Objections against my Chapter of Dropsies, are of the same Stamp: For what things I have assigned as the various Causes of those Distempers, he brings in as the Effects: But since he never yet assigned a true Cause for any thing, I can readily pardon his Mistake, and reasonably conclude he is not able to distinguish the one from the other. And if so, I hope the Patient that is so Foolhardy to commit himself to the Instructions of this most eminent Person, will settle his Concerns before, and be throughly prepared for another World, since he has two potent Enemies to encounter, a dangerous Distemper and a most unmerciful Pretender. But what made him to amuse us with his Arabic Word Acaid; since from what has been observed, it is demonstrably evident, he is as much a Stranger to the Letters in that Language as he is to their Persons? But I presume, upon some Surgeons Arms in London he had observed a Greek Word or two; wherefore prevailed with some Friend to supply him with the like Stock of the Eastern Dialect, that he might be thought Master of the Oriental Treasures. And since he has reduced the Materia Medica to an Old Woman with two Receipts, I hope he'll be so kind to curtail our English Dispensatory.— That he may be brought to a rational Apprehension, that he may, if 'tis possible, escape that Place with which he so foolishly, impudently, and frequently threatens me.  
I hope he'll reflect on his own Imperfections; for I assure him I do vehemently suspect that his frivolous, inconnected, and roving way of Writing, and one of the Statues in moorfield's, are so lively Emblems of a Raving Madness, that it threatens him with a Visit thither. I must confess the Remarks upon his Piece concerning the Heat of the Blood, were in a Style too light for the Gravity and Sobriety of Philosophy; but they were only designed as a Ridicule upon his wild extravagant Notions, to show him the Vanity of that way of Writing, a Method as I thought the most likely to reclaim him. Where the greatest Men for their Knowledge in Philosophy the World ever yet has seen, have been sunk in Contemplation in the unsearchable Works and Operations of Nature, he dogmatically asserts, and pretends mechanically to demonstrate, the Learned Charleton, Borellus, and Steno, have made large Discoveries in Muscular Motion, having reduced the various Figures of the Muscles to Mathematical Demonstrations: But alas, when we consider of the Power that gives Motion to each Fiber in voluntary Motion, how defective and enervate are all their elaborate Problems! But he, mighty Man, has outstripped all these Heroes in Philosophy, he only the Champion, he the Dwarf upon the Giants Shoulders. The Learned Willis, Crone, Mayow and Cooper, have supplied us with polite and learned Hypotheses, yet falter all in the main Business. They cannot see what it is in voluntary Motion makes that Impulse upon the Animal Spirits, that they can perform such Motions, contrary to all the Rules of Mechanism: Here they are sunk in an Abyss of Thought. Could the Learned Bidloe? Could the Accurate Cooper give us those lively Figures of the Muscles, and dissect their minutest Fibres? Could they in the Scarf Skin, seemingly barren of Variety of Vessels, discover that infinite Number of Capillary Veins and Arteries, by mercurial Injections? Could they in the more abstruse Viscera discover the minutest Glandules and Ly●●●●●ucts? and in the Cutis the Diversity of Pores, and miliary Glands, and not be able to discover Mr. Bolton's Metaphorical Glands? It's strange coy Nature should thus obstinately deny us so inestimable a Jewel. Nay, are we arrived to that Perfection in Microscopes, that we cannot only have a lively Figure of the parts of a solid Body, but even the Figure of the Particles in Liquids'? Is it possible then there should be such Glands as Mr. Bolton contends for, (viz.) Vessels impleted with a Juice from the Arteries and Nerves? Can we by these Glasses discover the Globules of the Blood? the Forms of Plants in their Seeds? Animalcules, and each Particle of a Liquid, and not discern the Vessel that contains the Liquor? If so, sure now we are grown to that purblind Generation, that we cannot see the Wood for the Trees, or can discern each Grain in a Molehill, but cannot discover a Mountain. Thus he may see his Metaphorical Glands upon which all his Works depend, are false and fictitious: So that his Foundation being now removed, his Castles in the Air must tumble down. I can with Laughter ridicule his Utopian Discoveries. He may if he thinks convenient proceed in that Method, I can easily think him as empty as the Welshman that purchased the Pompion for the mere's Egg, and doubt not but the one will as soon produce a Colt as he solve the Phaenomena in Muscular Motion. Thus he may see what he has alleged is upon a Sandy Bottom: From the Premises we may draw quite different Corollaries. What he urges is highly irrational, and only begging the Question, a Method he sure knows, the poorest way of arguing. I do assure him (though he is pleased to challenge me) I do not, nor ever did envy his Success.  
And since he understands not the Classic Authors, as I have made it undeniably evident from the best Authorities, he does not; he may be assured till he qualifies himself better to write, I shall not give him or myself any Trouble in this nature.  
Poor Animal, his Gums were swelled with Rancour, but he wanted Teeth to by't with. I hope he'll be so kind to himself to purchase a Whistle and a Coral to break the envenomed Tumour, tho' no one needs to fear the By't of so harmless a Creature. But now, to convince the World what little Deference he has for Learning, and how far he has transgressed all the Rules of common Modesty, let him consult his own Letter, writ to a Friend of his at Chester, under whose Tuition he ought yet to be. In that he tells him he was little altered with the Air at Oxford; He expected indeed to have found it a Place of Learning, but, to his great Disappointment, he found it, for the greatest put, a Seat of Loggerheads; that the Exercise there was so mean and trilling, he could by studying one Hour in twenty four qualify himself for the performance of it: That when he disputed, he only talked to the Dean and Moderator, the rest not being able to discourse him: That he had only the Satisfaction to see the Respondent sit silent: and that with a Month's Study he could qualify himself for any Degree there. He farther proceeds upon his being Candidate for a Scholarship; That what Opposition he found, was only from a Blockhead of three Years standing. What Pity it was to nip him in his early Bloom, to check him in his Tour, to illegititimate this Eaglet, who presumes he can gaze on a Meridian Sun, whilst his bleared Eyes and dazzled Organs obviously bespeak his Original spurious.  
Here indeed is unparallelled Arrogance, and unpardonable Reflections upon one of the greatest Bodies of Learning in the Universe; so that his thoughtless Raillery against me is the less to be regarded. Nor had I now taken notice of his empty Abuses, had he not sheltered himself under the Patronage of so eminent a Person: And let him be assured, shall not hereafter, without greater Proofs of Modesty and Learning, trouble myself with such an Adversary. I could enumerate more egregious Follies in the Piece of the same Stamp; but what have been observed are sufficient. I shall not therefore trouble the World with any more of his undigested Ribaldry.  
FINIS.