LINACRE. 9 grievous hurt, damage, and destruction of many of the king's liege people." Tliis was the state of things before the foundation of the College of Physicians. Afterwards, it is true, empirics were occasionally treated in the most summary man- ner, and their dealings with the credulous must have been wicked and gross, to have deserved such a punishment as the following, recorded by Stow, in his Chronicles : "A counterfeit doctor," says he, " was set on horseback, his face to the horse's tail, the same tail in his hand as a bridle, a collar of jordans about his neck, a whetstone on his breast, and so led through the city of London, with ring- ing of basins, and banished. Such deceivers," continues the chronicler, "no doubt, are many, who, being never trained up in reading or practice of physick and chirurgery, do boast to doe great cures, especially upon women, as to make them straight that before were crooked, corbed, or crumped in any part of their bodies, &c. But the contrary is true ; for some have received gold, when they have better deserved the whetstone." On the establishment of the College, which was to put an end to those and similar abuses, Linacre was elected the first president, and continued in that office during the remainder of his life, about seven years. The assemblies of the College were held at his own house in Knight Rider's-street, which he bequeathed to them at his death. It may here be observed, with propriety, that the founda- tion of the College of Physicians has had the most useful and beneficial results. By their charter, they are empowered to examine medical candi- dates after a certain period of study, and, upon
