by this singular genius, he gives an account of the creation of
Adam: ‘_Thus_ Adam was created in that pleasant place _Paradise_,
about the year before Christ 4002, viz. on April 24, at twelve
o’clock, or midnight.’ His name was latinized to _Caseus_, which was
occasionally interpreted Dr. _Cheese_. Granger says the following
anecdote of Case was communicated to him by the Rev. Mr. Gosling,
in these terms: ‘Dr. Maundy, formerly of Canterbury, told me, that
in his travels abroad, some eminent physician, who had been in
England, gave him a token to spend at his return with Dr. Radcliffe
and Dr. Case. They fixed on an evening, and were very merry, when
Radcliffe thus began a health: ‘Here, brother Case, to all the fools
your patients.’ ‘I thank you, good brother,’ replied Case; ‘let me
have all the fools, and you are heartily welcome to the rest of the
practice.’’
THOMAS DAWSON.
“The following anecdote is related of him: After he became M.D. he
attended his neighbour Miss Corbett, of Hackney, who [p331] was
indisposed; and found her one day sitting solitary, piously and
pensively musing upon the Bible, when, _by some strange accident_,
his eyes were directed to the passage where Nathan says to David,
‘Thou art the Man.’ The doctor profited by the kind hint; and, after
a proper time allowed for drawing up articles of capitulation,
the lady, on 29th May, 1758, surrendered herself up to all his
prescriptions, and the doctor very speedily performed a perfect cure.
PHILIP HECQUET.
“‘C’est une erreur de penser que le sang soit nécessaire à la
conservation de la vie; on ne peut trop saigner un malade;’ are the
words put into the mouth of our doctor, in the character of Sangrado
by the facetious Le Sage. Hecquet, both in theory and practice,
carried the _anti-phlogistic_ system to a greater extent than any
other man, and defended the ‘_boisson_’ and the _bleeding_, saying,
‘J’ai pour garants de mon sentiment, sur le _Régime maigre_, les
médecins les plus fameux, tant anciens que modernes.’ He was a
conscientious practitioner of his own eccentric doctrines, and it
was perfectly consistent with his character, that ‘loin d’imputer la
mort du chanoine à la boisson et aux saignées, il sortit en disant,
d’un air froid, qu’on ne lui avait pas tiré _assez de sang_, ni fait
boire _assez d’eau chaude_.’
“The practice of _bleeding_ was carried to a singular extent in
France, and it was the fashion, at one time, to bleed on the
opposite side to the part affected; if the pain was on the right
side, they bled in the left arm, and _vice versâ_. Pierre Brissot
produced a civil war in the medical world by writing against the
custom, and, in the year 1600, was driven into exile, by edict of
the University of Paris, for thus opposing the established practice.
SIR CHARLES SCARBOROUGH
“Was a man of great versatility of talents; he wrote a ‘Treatise on
Trigonometry,’ and a ‘Compendium of Lilly’s Grammar;’ gave lectures
on mathematics at Cambridge, and on anatomy in London. His epitaph
records that he was
Inter Medicos Hippocrates, Inter Mathematicos Euclides.
He read the lecture founded by Dr. Caldwell, at Barber-surgeons’
Hall, for many years; where he was the first who attempted to
account for muscular strength and motion on geometrical principles.
He was a man of amiable manners and great vivacity of conversation.
Seeing the Duchess of Portsmouth eat to excess, he said to her, with
his usual frankness, ‘Madam, I will deal with you as a physician
should do; _you must eat less, use more exercise, take physic, or be
sick_.’
DR. PITCAIRN
“Was a great enemy to quackery and quacks, of whom he used [p332]
to say that there were not such liars in the world, except their
patients. A relation of his, one day, asking his opinion of a
certain work on fevers, he observed, ‘I do not like fever curers;
we _may guide_ a fever—we cannot _cure_ it. What would you think of
a pilot who attempted to quell a storm? Either position is equally
absurd. We must steer the ship as well as we can in a storm; and in
a fever we can only employ patience and judicious measures, to meet
the difficulties of the case.’”
Turn we now to the second article in our list,—_Nugæ Canoræ_; and we
are satisfied that our readers will agree with us in the correctness
of our _guess_. It is the production, at any rate, of one who has
lived much in the medical world, and no unobservant spectator of
the vices and virtues, the feelings and failings of contemporary
practitioners, possessing tact to “catch the manners living as they
rise.” In short, it is a pleasant _jeu d’esprit_; and we hail it as
an omen, that in these “piping times of peace,” the days of Garth,
Goldsmith, and Darwin may be revived, and that the medical fraternity
may again employ their _leisure_ hours in amusements for which their
education and intercourse with society so well qualify them.
After a humorous preface, in which the removal of the College
of Physicians to Pall-mall East is lamented, the work, for very
satisfactory reasons, is dedicated to the Presidents of the two
Colleges and to the Master of the Company of Apothecaries, for the
year 1927—and as a character in one of Foote’s farces wishes he were
to be born “fifty years hence,” so should we like to have a peep at
the “Clines and Coopers,” the “Halfords and Warrens,” of that day. We
wish, with the author, that they may be as distinguished ornaments of
their profession as those of our own.
That the old college should still be preserved for medical purposes,
it is proposed to turn it into a “Medical Mausoleum,” where the
“Medical Fraternity” are to be buried on the same terms as the
Parisians are at Père la Chaise—and then follow the supposed Epitaphs
of the present race of the “Medici.” Due honour is done to learning
and talents; while quackery, in all its ramifications, meets with
just castigation. The names of Heberden, Turton, and Baker are
noticed with the respect to which their virtues and acquirements
entitle them.
Passing from these, we are introduced to an eccentric of the old
school. [p333]
“SIR RICHARD JEBB, BART. M.D.
“Here, caught in Death’s web,
Lies the great Doctor JEBB,
Who got gold-dust just like Astley Cooper;
Did you speak about diet,
He would kick up a riot,
And swear like a madman or trooper.
“When he wanted your money,
Like sugar or honey,
Sir Richard looked happy and placid;
Having once touched the cash,
He was testy and rash,
And his honey was turned to an acid.
“Sir Richard was very rough and harsh in manner. He said to a
patient, to whom he had been very rude, ‘_Sir, it is my way_.’
‘Then,’ replied the patient, pointing to the door, ‘I beg you will
make _that your way_.’ Sir Richard was not very nice in his mode of
expression, and would frequently astonish a patient with a volley
of oaths. Nothing used to make him swear more than the eternal
question, ‘What may I eat?—Pray, Sir Richard, may I eat a muffin?’
‘Yes, Madam, the _best thing_ you can take.’ ‘O dear! I am glad of
that. But, Sir Richard, you told me the other day, that it was the
_worst_ thing I could eat!’ ‘What would be proper for me to eat
to-day?’ says another lady. ‘Boiled turnips.’ ‘Boiled turnips! you
forget, Sir Richard, I told you I could not bear boiled turnips.’
‘Then, Madam, you must have a d—— d vitiated appetite.’”
We cannot help bringing before our readers the following well-known
“characters” of their day, and should have indulged in more ample
quotations from these amusing “Epitaphs,” were we not afraid of the
imputation of “inappropriateness.”
“_On a most venerable and highly venerated Surgeon, lately deceased_.
‘Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit,
Nulli flebilior quam mihi.’—HOR.
“Of manners gentle, and in soul sincere,
Removed beyond this sublunary sphere,
Here lies an honest man!
Endued with caution, yet devoid of fear,
In practice dexterous, in judgment clear—
Excel him if you can!”
To this, we think, may be affixed the name of Henry Cline! [p334]
“CHARLES GOWER, M.D.
‘Discours de bons mots!’
“Ye sons of humour, of frolic, and fun,
This stone will inform you that Gower is gone.
Poor Gower! eccentric, facetious, and funny,
Lik’d nothing so well as other men’s money.
Alas! he is gone—’tis hard to say where,
The victim of mirth, imprudence, and care.
Where’er he is gone, his companions he’ll smoke,
For, cost what it will—he will have his joke.
“‘I knew him well, Horatio!’” exclaims our Author—“‘a fellow of
infinite jest!’—Chairman of the St. Alban’s Club, where oft ‘he
set the table on a roar.’—And who did not know this eccentric
oddity? Gower had considerable talents, but they were directed
every way but the right. He made medicine a plaything, never being
steady in professional pursuits. He wrote several singular books:
one he entitled ‘Auxiliaries to Medicine;’ another, ‘The Art of
Painting;’ both of which pourtray the character of their author. His
unsteadiness led him into difficulties, and he died in obscurity.”
“DALMAHOY.
‘Thrice happy were those golden days of old,
When dear as burgundy p’tisans were sold.’
“Dalmahoy sold infusions and lotions,
Decoctions, and gargles, and pills;
Electuaries, powders, and potions,
Spermaceti, salts, scammony, squills.
Horse-aloes, burnt alum, agaric,
Balm, benzoine, blood-stone, and dill;
Castor, camphor, and acid tartaric,
With _specifics_ for every ill.
But with all his specifics in store
Death on Dalmahoy one day did pop;
And although he had doctors a score,
Made poor Dalmahoy shut up his shop.”
“HENRY REVELL REYNOLDS, M.D.,
‘Os placidum moresque benigni.’
“Here well-dressed Revell Reynolds lies,
As great a beau as ever!
We may perhaps see one as wise,
But sure a smarter never.
“Dr. Reynolds may be considered as the link between the ancient and
modern costume of the Faculty: to the last, he wore a well-powdered
wig and a silk coat. He was an excellent [p335] specimen of a
well-dressed and well-bred gentleman. As a practitioner he ranked in
the first class, and he was one of the physicians who attended King
George the Third during his afflicting and protracted malady.”
“RICHARD GRINDALL, ESQ.
‘Eamus quo ducet gula.’
“Within this place Dick Grindall lies,
Who was a rare game chicken.
So, so, friend Dick, an old chum cries,
The worms have pretty picking!
No Surgeon better lov’d himself;
He lov’d old rum and brandy
As much as misers do their pelf,
Or children sugar-candy.
And as for eatables—in short,
He lov’d both roast and boil’d;
Fish, flesh, or fowl, of any sort,
If not by cooking spoil’d.
But though full well he lov’d good cheer,
It was a venial fault;
Since Reason’s feast to him was dear,
Season’d with _Attic Salt_.
“He was an excellent surgeon of his day; that is, fifty years before
Abernethy or Cooper was dreamt of. He was also a great oddity,
but a perfect gentleman in his appearance and manner; never seen,
by any accident, but in a well-powdered wig, silk stockings, and
shoe-buckles. He practised in the City, when the city aristocracy
resided within its walls, and Haberdashers’ “Hall, in the season,
assembled all the wit, wisdom, and wealth of London merchants, in a
sort of conclave of saltatory civic magnificos.”
We just remember him, and that, after a long illness, he went round
in his carriage to return thanks for “obliging inquiries,” leaving
his card, on which was written, “the remains of Dick Grindall.”
The third and last work we have to notice, comes more legitimately
before us, and is a novelty in medical literature—a sort of _Sketch
Book_, containing much entertaining anecdote, that makes the
information it contains extremely amusing.
The work is divided into three parts, as the alliterated title
quaintly informs us—Mems., Maxims, and Memoirs. The first is a
chronological record, giving, as it were, a “bird’s eye view” of the
most interesting events in the history of medicine, from the time of
the conquest up to the [p336] present century. The second consists
of comments, or short essays, illustrative of some of the most
important facts; and the third of biographical anecdotes.
Under the head of “_Medical Books_,” we are presented with curious
specimens of our earliest writers, with comments; but let the author
speak for himself.
“One of the first of our English writers, is John of Gaddesden,
whose ‘Rosa Anglica,’ was greatly esteemed, and he is favourably
mentioned by Chaucer. John was a man to whom nothing came amiss; he
had an anodyne necklace for fits, and an infallible cataplasm for
gout; he was a dexterous bone-setter, and a good dentist. He was
very assiduous in inventing lotions for ladies’ complexions; and was
complaisant enough to cut their corns; and as for those troublesome
animalcules, which, in those days, used to infest _gentlemen’s_
heads, he had a most effectual method of destroying them; and
in his celebrated book, he favours us with a whimsical cure for
small-pox.—‘Immediately after the eruption, cause the whole body of
your patient to be wrapped in red scarlet cloth, or in any other red
cloth, and command everything about the bed to be made red. This is
an excellent cure. It was in this manner I treated the son of the
noble King of England, when he had the small-pox; and I cured him,
without leaving any marks.’
“Such was our countryman, John of Gaddesden, who deserves notice,
moreover, as being the first English surgeon employed at court; and
that the King (Edward III.) wrote a letter to the Pope in favour of
him.”
Speaking of Ardern’s manuscripts, he observes—
“These manuscripts, though they are more ludicrous than luminous,
are extremely well worth the attention of the surgical antiquary,
from the numerous illustrations they contain of the mode and manner
in which Ardern performed his operations; which, considering that he
was an _improver_ of surgery, gives us a glorious notion of what the
art was previously to John’s refinements, or those of Roger Franks,
whom he mentions with great praise.”
“ANATOMICAL LECTURES.
“When Dr. Hunter began his anatomical lectures, they were given
in the evening—but as he lived at the period when Garrick was in
his zenith, he soon discovered that he stood no chance with the
actor, for whenever Garrick _lectured_, the _anatomical lectures_
were neglected. In vain did the Doctor preach to the pupils on the
immorality of attending theatres, and the impropriety of neglecting
him; it was of no avail; Romeo’s apothecary and Dr. Last were the
only medical characters to spend the evening with, and for the rest,
they thought Macbeth sufficient authority, to ‘throw physic to the
dogs.’ [p337]
“For this reason, and for this reason alone, the anatomical lectures
were afterwards given in the middle of the day.
“Dr. Hunter may be considered as the father of the anatomical
schools of London, and he bequeathed a fame and character to his
class, which has been supported with undiminished lustre to the
present day. Previously to his time, very little had been done;
Cheselden had given a few lectures—so had André, and Nourse; and
Dr. Frank Nicholls gave what he considered a systematic course, and
published a Syllabus of thirty-nine lectures. Dr. Maclauren and
Dr. Marshal were also anatomical teachers. To the late Mr. Cline,
however, and to Mr. Abernethy, we are indebted for the anatomical
schools at two of our largest hospitals.
“Mr. Cline, it is true, found a place to lecture in, but it was his
great talents and his high character, that brought it into notice,
and subsequently, with Sir Astley Cooper, made it one of the first
schools in Europe.
“To Abernethy is due the sole honour of establishing the Anatomical
School at St. Bartholomew’s, now second to none; and it is to the
advantages arising from the hospital education of the metropolis,
that London has become, within the last half century, the most
distinguished seat of medical tuition in the world. Long may it
flourish!
‘Quicquid est laudabile, idem est beatum et florens.’—_Cicero_.”
“APOTHECARY.
“Apothecary, in its derivative sense, does not seem to allude
particularly to the sellers of medicines. Αποθηκη is of very
indefinite signification, (_Horreum_,) a market, shop, or
repository, which may be used or applied to any other business.
Chaucer and Pegge make it _Poticarry_, while some have derived it
from _A-pot-he-carries_, intimating, that they used to carry the
medicines themselves, as well as see them administered. ‘Give me an
ounce of civet, good apothecary,’ says Shakspeare.
“The ancient apothecaries were called ΡΙΖΟΤΟΜΟΙ, root-cutters; and
root-cutters they may still be considered; at any rate, no one
will deny to honest, herborizing Tom Wheeler, the character of a
primitive ΡΙΖΟΤΟΜΟΣ.
“That they may still be characterised by this appellation, their
‘herborizing walks,’ and their botanic garden at Chelsea, afford
very creditable proofs; nor is there any circumstance in the history
of the present worshipful society, that reflects more honour on
their zeal in promoting those branches of science, which appertain
to their avocation, than the disinterestedness and liberality with
which, during the last two centuries, they have maintained their
establishment at Chelsea.
“An active and intelligent member of their court has furnished them
with a very interesting and ample memoir on the subject, [p338] by
which it appears, that this expensive design was commenced at a time
when the society was without any disposable funds, when their hall
was burnt down in the memorable fire, and when they were obliged
to draw upon their own private pecuniary resources, to enable them
to enter on an undertaking, ‘whose principal design was honourable
reputation, without any prospect of worldly advantage.’
“Previously to the establishment of this garden, there had been
nothing of the kind, with the exception of a few private gardens,
the most conspicuous of which were those of the celebrated John
Gerarde, and the elder Tradescant; the former of these not then
being in existence, and the latter in a state of neglect and ruin;
and the locality of their position is now only known from the
records of the times.
“There was, however, besides these, a small garden in Westminster,
belonging to Mrs. Gape, the plants from which furnished the first
specimens for the Chelsea Garden. It appears from Evelyn’s journal,
that he paid old Mrs. Gape’s _medical garden_ a visit in June 1658;
whether he begged, borrowed, or bought any plants, does not appear;
that he had a very fine garden at Sayer’s Court, is well known;
but that he lent it to that royal barbarian, Peter the Great, when
he was studying ship-building at Deptford, is, perhaps, not so
generally known, nor, moreover, the return this royal carpenter
made to Evelyn’s politeness, or the manner in which he showed
his horticultural taste, in being wheeled through his landlord’s
ornamental hedges, and over his borders, in a wheel-barrow; a
circumstance which is recorded in a letter to the then Secretary of
the Royal Society.
“In France, the apothecaries were incorporated so early as 1484;
but it was not till the reign of King James the First, when the
metropolis abounded in dangerous empirics, who made and compounded
many ‘hurtful, false, and pernicious medicines,’ that the Worshipful
Society of Apothecaries were incorporated in London. Notwithstanding
a charter was given them to correct these abuses, it was found to be
nugatory with respect to those who were not members of the society;
and, although they made repeated applications to parliament, it
is only within these very few years that their powers have been
extended, and that they could legally enter the shop of any ‘person
or persons using the art and mystery of an apothecary, in any part
of England and Wales, for the purpose of searching, surveying, and
proving whether the medicines, wares, drugs, or any thing or things
whatsoever, in such shop or shops contained, and belonging to the
art or mystery of an apothecary, be wholesome, meet, and fit for the
cure, health, and ease of His Majesty’s subjects.’” [p339]
“TOBACCO.
‘Tobacco’s a physician,
Good both for sound and sickly;
’Tis a hot perfume,
That expels cold Rheume,
And makes it flow down quickly.’
“So says an old song, in an old play, and so said Dr. Ralph Thorius,
and the learned Dr. Everard, who wrote a book, entitled ‘Panacea, or
a Universal Medicine, being a Discovery of the wonderful Virtues of
Tobacco’ (1659); and in the frontispiece of his book, the Doctor is
represented with a pipe in his mouth. Dr. William Butler, styled,
by Fuller, the Æsculapius of his age, was also a great admirer
of tobacco, and that he might not smoke a dry pipe, he invented
a medical drink, called ‘Butler’s Ale;’ afterwards sold at the
Butler’s Head, in Mason’s-alley, Basinghall-street.
“Sir Theodore Mayerne gives a curious specimen of his tobacco
practice: ‘A person applying to him with a violent defluxion on his
teeth, Butler told him, that ‘a hard knot must be split with a hard
wedge,’ and directed him to smoke tobacco without intermission,
till he had consumed an ounce of the herb. The man was accustomed
to smoke; he therefore took twenty-five pipes at a sitting. This
first occasioned extreme sickness, and then a flux of saliva, which,
with gradual abatement of the pain, ran off to the quantity of two
quarts. The disorder was entirely cured, and did not return for
seventeen years.’
“Ant. Wood says, that he was much resorted to, ‘and had been more,
did he not delight to please himself with fantastical humours.’
“Many singular stories are related of him, perhaps they are
travelling stories, as may be conjectured, from the nature of the
prescription, when he ordered a lethargic parson to be put into the
warm carcase of a newly-killed cow!
“Fuller paints this humorist in striking colours, but observes,
‘that he made his humorsomeness to become him; wherein some of his
profession have rather aped than imitated him, who had morositatem
æquabilem, and kept the tenor of the same surliness to all persons.’
“The following extracts from _Letters from the Bodleian_, vol. ii.,
will give a notion of his _humour_, and of his mode of treating his
patients.
“‘Dr. Gale, of St. Paul’s schoole, assures me that a Frenchman came
one time from London to Cambridge, purposely to see him, whom he
made stay two houres for him in his gallery, and then he came out in
an old blue gowne. The French gentleman makes him two or three very
low bowes downe to the ground; Dr. Butler whippes his legge over his
head, and away goes into his chamber, and did not speake with him.
He kept an old mayd, whose name [p340] was Nell. Dr. Butler would
many times goe to the taverne, but drinke by himselfe: about nine or
ten at night, old Nell comes to him with a candle and lanthorne, and
sayes, “Come home, you drunken beast.” By and by Nell would stumble,
then her master calls her “drunken beast;” and so they did “drunken
beast” one another all the way till they came home.’
“‘The Dr. lyeing at the Savoy in London, next the water side, where
was a balcony look’t into the Thames, a patient came to him that
was grievously tormented with an Ague. The Dr. orders a boate to be
in readinesse under his windowe, and discoursed with the patient (a
gent.) in the balcony, when, on a signal given, two or three lusty
fellows came behind the gent., and threw him a matter of twenty feet
into the Thames. This surprise absolutely cured him.’
“‘A gent. with a red, ugly, pimpled face, came to him for a cure.
Said the Dr. “I must hang you.” So presently he had a device made
ready to hang him from a beam in the roome; and when he was e’en
almost dead, he cuts the veins that fed these pimples, and lett out
the black ugly blood, and cured him.’
“Butler must have been a man of abilities, for the Lord Treasurer
Burleigh wrote to the President of the College of Physicians,
desiring that Butler might be allowed to practice in London
occasionally, and he was consulted, with Sir Theodore Mayerne and
others, in the sickness that proved fatal to Prince Henry; and it
is reported that Butler, at first sight of him, gave an unfavorable
prognostic. The account of this case affords such an excellent
notion of the consultations and practise of the doctors of those
days, that I am induced to give it as stated in the ‘Desiderata
Curiosa.’
“_The Manner of the Sickness and Death of Prince Henry, 6th Nov._
1612.
“‘Dr. Atkins, a Physician of London, famous for his practyce,
honestie, and learninge, was sent for to assiste the reste in the
cure.