physic

“I rather hope to satisfy you both,” said Emma, “for I shall do all in my power to make them happy, which will be enough for Isabella; and happiness must preclude false indulgence and physic.”

So, too, in French you find ‘physic’ in the singular, not the plural, to mean natural science: e.g.

It all started back in 1670, when two Edinburgh doctors - Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour - set up a physic garden, to explore the links between plants and medicine, for the benefit of society.

Lord Sands in “Henry VIII”: ’Tis time to give ’em physic, their diseases are grown so catching.”

It was nothing a good physic or a patent medicine wouldn’t take care of.