Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser 18 September 1776

Non habeo denique nauci Marsum Augurem,
Non vicarios aruspices, no de circo Astrologas*,
ENNIUS¹.

I observed in the Gazetteer of the 6th instant, the signature of The London Spy to a letter in favour of Dr. Myersbach, the high German Doctor, or water-conjuror, who cannot reasonably supposed capable of writing English; and therefore, I presume, he has hired this Spy, as a person ready to write any thing for pay, and, like many others at his door, prepared to propagate a thousand stories to deceive the numberless objects that present themselves for cure.

This letter contains many artful insinuations, but not a single article in favour of the Doctor of urines; and though numerous suppositions and unmeaning questions abound through the whole, yet the English have been too long deluded to accept evasion for argument, and slight supposes for matters of fact; they wish to see these wonderful cures so much boasted of by hirelings, and circulated by ignorance, more satisfactorily authenticated, as the best answer to the pamphlet, entitled, Observations preparatory to the Use of Dr. Myersbach’s Medicines, wherein various dreadful instances of ignorance, presumption, and injurious treatment are fairly exhibited; and will be greatly augmented in the second editions, now in the press. Six of these instances of injurious treatment are at this time under my care; and if the London Spy, or his German retainer, will do the favour soon to call in Eastcheap, I will shew them several of these deluded objects, dragging on a miserable life, in consequence of their own folly, and the ignorance of the conjuror. I say soon, because I fear some of them will not long survive, particularly James White, of Bishopgate-street, who was ordered to take twenty-eight doses of purging physic in as many days; the consequence of which is a dropsy of a very fatal aspect.

The London Spy, who, as I have already intimated, only deals in suppositions, says, of a letter in your paper, signed A. B. “Perhaps it is the production of the same hand, which held out to the Doctor two five hundred pound Bank notes to be admitted into partnership with him, which being rfused, he wrote a ridiculous pamphlet to depreciate and abuse him.”

Of the pamphlet abovementioned, I confess myself the author; but with respect to the letter signed A.B. I declare I did not dictate one syllable of it; or interfere the least in its publication. The author resides near Aldgate, is a man of reputation, and universally esteemed; he is likewise an able writer, and ready to support the truth of the case he has published. J. Causton, the coachman, who procured the horse’s urine, lives in Cripplegate, and has an irreproachable character. These are facts which require not mean insinuations to support their validity.

The Bank note story, I believe to be like many other idle tales, fabricated in Hatton-street, and circulated to support an impostor.

Illi narrata fernt alio: mensuraque ficti
Crescit; et auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor †.
OVID MET. L. xii. v. 57.²

I never had any connection with Dr. Myersbach, except in exposing his impositions, and three times in sending for him to meet me, in order to answer for his conduct, previous to the deaths of as many unhappy objects, but he refused that favour, although, in one instance, the friends of a very worthy gentleman, who unfortunately fell under his prescription, three times pressingly requested his appearance. If the London Spy will exhibit himself under his proper signature, I will then communicate the names of these parties, and of many others referred to in that pamphlet, which he calls ridiculous, for no other reason, than because it counteracts the views of his employer, but which any person, except a high German Quack and his hirelings would call serious, if life and death are serious subjects.

The London Spy complains, that Doctor Myersbach is obnoxious to the faculty: if the facts I have related have any influence, he ought to be obnoxious, not only to the faculty, but to the community in general. The faculty do not consist of conjurers, horse-riders, ignorant adventurers‡, and water-casters¶; they are men of character, education, probity, and humanity; they feel for the follies of their fellow-creatures, and despise imposition. But the faculty, far from exerting themselves with that spirit and resolution which became them, have supinely said

Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur §

and allowed the deception to prevail by their silence, which a legal interposition might have prevented, and probably thereby the lives of many have been happily preserved, and the importation of witches and conjurers in future obviated.

I shall postpone further observations on this letter of the London Spy, excepting what regards himself. If he is a scholar, and knows but little of the world, he cannot be ignorant that the urine scheme is totally calculated to deceive nurses, old women, and hypochondriac men; to pick the pockets and injure the constitutions of the weak. If he possesses principles and conscience of an honest man in the least degree, let him forsake the prostitution of his pen, where the most important concerns of his life are the price of the imposition, the happiness of whole families is involved in the deception, exclusive of the lingering and racking pains of many worthy individuals, who deserved a better fate, and a longer period of existence on this side of the grave.
JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM.
Great Eastcheap.
Sept. 13, 1776.

* Augurs, and water-quacks, astrologers, diviners, and interpreters of dreams. I ne’er consult, and heartily despise.

† Some tell what they have heard, or tales devise;
Each fiction still improv’d with added lyes.²

‡ See the extract of a letter to Dr. Lettsom, from a countryman of Dr. Myersbach’s.

¶ Another term for water-doctor   These impostors abound in the North of England; their prices or telling diseases by the urine are various, according to the ignorance and wealth of their dupes. I knew one water-caster, who at three-pence a phial, has accumulated a considerable fortune; and another at nine-pence a phial, has acquired affluence; but Dr. Myersbach takes half a guinea, besides a share of the shop trade, as his Apothecary assured me; and there is now no doubt but Myersbach, Koch, and the Porter are leagued together. Dr. Myersbach had half a guinea for discovering that a carriage horse had a disorder in its womb, and bore children with great labour pains; and the like sum that M. Kearsley’s cow had been too free with the Ladies of the town.

§ If the people will be deceived, let them be deceived³.

Notes

Source:

British Library Newspaper Collection Colindale - Burney Collection 18 September 1776 (14,844) Page 1 Columns 3 and 4