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Subject Area: Philosophy
Subject Area: Religion

MALADY—MEDICINE. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VI (Philosophical Dictionary Part 4) [1764]

Edition used:

The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version. A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901). In 21 vols. Vol. VI.

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols.

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MALADY—MEDICINE.

I will suppose that a fair princess who never heard speak of anatomy is ill either from having eaten or danced too much, or having done too much of what several princesses occasionally do. I suppose the following controversy takes place:

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Well, sir, the king pays you to attend to all this: fail not to put all things in their place, and to make my liquids circulate so that I may be comfortable. I warn you that I will not suffer with impunity.)

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What! are you a physician, and can you prescribe nothing?)

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You make me tremble; I believed that physicians cured all maladies.)

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What! all these secrets for purifying the blood, of which my ladies have spoken to me; this Baume de Vie of the Sieur de Lievre; these packets of the Sieur Arnauld; all these pills so much praised by femmes de chambre—)

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But there are specifics?)

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In what, then, consists medicine?)

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There are, however, salutary things, and others hurtful?)

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You puff not your merchandise. You are an honest man. When I am queen, I will make you my first physician.)

physician.

Let nature be your first physician. It is she who made all. Of those who have lived beyond a hundred years, none were of the faculty. The king of France has already buried forty of his physicians, as many chief physicians, besides physicians of the establishment, and others.

princess.

And, truly, I hope to bury you also.