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586 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
AEsope reporteth this storie, that one who had bought
a Moore-slave, supposing his blacke hew had come unto
him by some strange accident, or ill usage of his former
master, with great diligence caused him to be medicined
with divers bathes and sundry potions ; it fortuned the
Moore did no whit mend or change his swarthy complexion,
but lost his former health. How often commeth
it to passe, and how many times see we physitians
charge one another with their patients death. I remember
a popular sickenesse which some yeares since
greatly troubled the townes about mee, very mortal 1
and dangerous; the rage whereof being overpast, which
had carried away an infinite number of persons; one
of the most famous physitians in all the country published
a booke concerning that disease, wherein ho
adviseth himselfe that they had done amisse to use
phlebotomy, and confesseth it had beene one of the
principall causes of so great an inconvenience. Moreover,
their authors hold that there is no kinde of
physicke, but hath some hurtfull part in it. And if
those that fit our turne doe in some sort harm us,
what must those doe which are given us to no purpose,
and out of season ? As for me, if nothing else belonged
thereunto, I deeme it a matter very dangerous, and
of great prejudice for him who loathes the taste or
abhorres the smell of a potion, to swallow it at so
unconvenient houres, and so much against his heart.
And I thinke it much distempereth a sicke man, namely,
in a season he hath so much neede of rest. Besides,
consider but the occasions on which they ordinarily
ground the cause of our sickenesses ; they are so light
and delicate, as thence I argue that a very small error
in compounding of their drugges may occasion as much
detriment. Now if the mistaking in a physitian be
dangerous, it is very ill for us; for it is hard if he fall
not often into it. He hath neede of many parts, divers
considerations, and severall circumstances to proportion
his desseigne justly. He ought to know the sicke man's
complexion, his temper, his humours, his inclinations,
his actions, his thoughts, and his imaginations. He