and languish, though I hear, his friends did not seem to apprehend him in any danger. About two or three days ago he grew ill, was confined first to his chamber, and in a few hours after to his bed, where Dr. Case[1], and Mrs. Kirleus[2] were sent for to visit, and to prescribe to him. Upon this intelligence, I sent thrice every day one ser-
- ↑ John Case was many years a noted practitioner in physick and astrology. He was looked upon as the successor of Lilly and of Safford, and possessed the magical utensils of both. He erased the verses of his predecessor from the sign post, and substituted in their stead this distich, by which he is said to have got more than Dryden did by all his works,
"Within this place
Lives doctor Case;"and was doubtless very well paid for composing that which he affixed to his pill boxes,
"Here's fourteen pills for thirteen pence;
Enough in any man's own con-sci-ence."He published, in 1697, one of the most profound astrological pieces the world ever saw, called, "The Angelical Guide, showing men and women their chance in this elementary life," in four books. The diagrams in this work would probably have puzzled Euclid, though he had studied astrology. From the mention made of him by Swift, he appears to have been living in 1708. When Tutchin published his Observations, the doctor used frequently to advertise himself at the end of that paper, beginning in this formal manner: "Your old physician Dr. Case desires you not to forget him," &c. In some of his bills, he told the publick,
"At the Golden Ball and Lilly's Head,
John Case lives, though Safford's dead. - ↑ Mary Kirleus, widow of John Kirleus, son of Dr. Thomas Kirleus, a collegiate physician of London, and sworn physician in ordinary to king Charles II, was a constant advertiser in the Observator, and "dealt with all persons according to their abilities."
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