was Master of any Medicine that could cure the Plague, but that he came at a lucky Time, when the Pestilence had spent its Fury, and was on the declining Hand, or that he was favoured by some other fortunate Incidents, that moved the People to ascribe the Extinction of that dreadful Disease, to the Care and Skill of the Physician: For my part I do not believe that there ever was any such prevalent Medicine in the Hands of any Man whatsoever; and if Hippocrates was Master of any such Remedy, he must out of Enmity to his Species have concealed and sunk it, that Posterity might have no Benefit or Advantage by it, which surpasses all Belief; had it been so, he ought to have been stripped of his Divinity, and have had his Apotheosis reversed; If he was guilty of such Cruelty, he should have been brought down and ranked with Misanthropes, and the most unnatural and hard-hearted Barbarians; and therefore not being capable of thinking thus of him, I conclude he had no such Receipt.
Van Helmont, a visionary Chymist, pretended to be Master of the Remedies that Hippocrates used in curing the Plague, tho'
