Medical—The Doctor of the old School—The rising lights—Dr.
Jenner—His discovery of vaccination for smallpox—Opposition
thereto—Perkins’s Metallic Tractors—The “Perkinean Institution”—His
cures—Electricity and Galvanism—Galvanizing a dead criminal—Lunatic
Asylums—Treatment of the insane—The Hospitals.
A _PROPOS_ of Doctors—the medical and surgical branches of the
profession were emerging from empiricism, and science was beginning
to assert herself, and laying the foundation of the English School of
Medicine, the finest the world has yet seen. The doctor of the old
school (as given in the next page) was still extant, with his look
of portentous sagacity, his Burghley-like shake of the head, his bag
with instruments and medicaments, and the cane—always the gold-headed
cane—which came in so useful, and gave such a look of sapience when
applied to the side of the nose, affording time for consideration
before giving an opinion on a doubtful case—a relic of the time when,
in its gold top, was carried a febrifuge, such as aromatic vinegar, or
the such like. Similar types are also given in a political caricature
by Isaac Cruikshank.
[Illustration: A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL—1803.]
But these old quacks were disappearing, and the progenitors of the
present hard-working, energetic, and scientific men, our medical
advisers, were arising, and I append a list, imperfect as it may
be, which contains names of world-wide reputation, and thoroughly
well known to every fairly educated Englishman. They are taken in no
sequence, chronological or otherwise. Sir Anthony Carlisle, F.R.S.,
President of the Royal College of Surgeons; Sir Charles Mansfield
Clarke, so famous for his treatment of the Diseases of Women and
Children; Sir Astley Paston Cooper; Sir Henry Halford; that rough
old bear John Abernethy; Dr. Matthews Baillie the brother of Joanna
Baillie; Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie—then a young man; Dr. Edward
Jenner, of whom more anon; Wm. Lawrence, F.R.S., Surgeon Extraordinary
to the Queen; Sir Charles Bell, another famous Surgeon, whose “System
of Anatomy,” is still a text book; Geo. James Guthrie, and many others;
but a sufficient number of well-known names have been given to warrant
the assertion that it was an exceptionally brilliant time of English
medicine and surgery.
Perhaps the medical man of this era, to whom the whole world is most
indebted, is Dr. Jenner, who thoroughly investigated the wonderfully
prophylactic powers of the cow pock. He had noticed that milkers of
cows could not, as a rule, be inoculated with the smallpox virus—a
means of prevention then believed in, as the patient generally suffered
but slightly from the inoculation, and it was then a creed, long since
exploded, that smallpox could not be taken twice. This fact of their
resistance to variolous inoculation set him thinking, and he came to
the conclusion that they had absorbed into their systems, a counter
poison in the shape of some infection taken from the cows. He made
many experiments, and found that this came from a disease called the
cow pock, and that the vaccine lymph could not only be taken direct
from the cow, but also by transmission from the patients who had been
inoculated with that lymph, and whence the present system of so-called
vaccination—the greatest blessing of modern times.
Jenner, of course, was opposed; fools do not even believe in
vaccination now, and great was the battle for, and against, in the
medical profession, and many were the books written _pro_ and _con_.
“Vaccination Vindicated,” Ed. Jones; “A Reply to the Anti-Vaccinists,”
Jas. Moore; “The Vaccine Contest,” Wm. Blair; “Cow Pock Vaccination,”
Rowland Hill; “Birch against Vaccination,” “Willan on Vaccination,”
&c., &c.
Gillray could not, of course, leave such a promising subject alone, and
he perpetrated the accompanying illustration. Here Dr. Jenner (a very
good likeness) is attending to his patients—vaccinating, rather too
vigorously, one lady—the lymph, in unlimited quantity, being borne
by a workhouse boy, and receiving his patients who are exhibiting the
different phases of their vaccination. As a rule, they seem to have
“taken” too well.
[Illustration: THE COW POCK; OR, THE WONDERFUL EFFECTS OF THE NEW
INOCULATION!
(_Vide the publications of y[e] Anti-Vaccine Society._)]
A quack, who flourished early in the century, far better deserved the
caricaturists’ pencil than Jenner, and he got it. The illustration on
this page represents an American quack, named Perkins, who pretended to
cure various diseases by means of his metallic tractors—operating on
John Bull. The paper on the table is the _True Briton_, and it reads
thus: “Theatre—dead alive—Grand Exhibition in Leicester Square. Just
arrived from America the Rod of Æsculapius. Perkinism in all its glory,
being a certain cure for all Disorders, Red Noses, Gouty Toes, Windy
Bowels, Broken Legs, Hump backs. Just discovered, Grand secret of the
Philosopher’s Stone, with the true way of turning all metals into Gold.”
[Illustration: METALLIC TRACTORS—1802.]
The truth is, that, at the end of the eighteenth century, Galvani and
Volta, Sir Joseph Banks, in connection with the Royal Society, and
all the scientific men of the day, were deeply interested in solving
the mysteries of electricity; and, as nobody, as yet, knew much about
it, the public were liable to be gulled by any empiric, and Benjamin
Douglas Perkins was the very man to do it. He, and others, wrote
several pamphlets on “The Influence of Metallic Tractors on the Human
Body, in removing various Inflammatory Diseases,” and such like, and
opened a _Perkinean Institution_ in London. He must have been fairly
successful, for his advertisements lasted some years. His published
cures were miraculous: “A Lady was afflicted with an Erysipelas in her
face.... In a few minutes she cheerfully acknowledged that she was
quite well.” “A man aged 37 had, for several years, been subject to the
Gout. I found him in bed, and very much distressed with the disease
in one of his feet. After I had operated upon it with the Tractors he
said the pain was entirely gone.” “A Lady burned her hand. I, happily,
called at the house immediately after the accident, and applied the
Tractors. In about ten minutes, the inflammation disappeared, the
vesication was prevented, and she said the pain was gone.” The price
of these “blessings to men” was five guineas a set; and he explains
them in the specification of the patent granted him on the 10th March,
1798, where, speaking of Galvanism, he says, “Among the metals that may
be thus characterised, I have found none more eminently efficacious in
removing diseases than the combinations of copper, zinc, and a small
proportion of gold: a precise quantity of each is not necessary: also
iron united to a very small proportion of silver and platina; an exact
proportion of these also not necessary. These are constructed with
points, and of such dimensions as convenience shall dictate. They may
be formed with one point, or pointed at each end, or with two or more
points. The point of the instrument thus formed I apply to those parts
of the body which are affected with diseases, and draw them off on
the skin, to a distance from the complaint, and usually towards the
extremities.”
Electricity was then a new toy, of which no one, as yet, knew the use,
and they amused themselves with it in various ways, one of which must
serve as an example. _Times_, January 22, 1803: “The body of _Forster_,
who was executed on Monday last for murder, was conveyed to a house
not far distant, where it was subjected to the _Galvanic process_ by
Professor ALDINI, under the inspection of Mr. KEATE, Mr. CARPUE, and
several other professional gentlemen. M. ALDINI, who is the nephew of
the discoverer of this most interesting science, showed the eminent and
superior powers of _Galvanism_ to be far beyond any other stimulant in
nature. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaw of
the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were
horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent
part of the process, the right hand was raised and clenched, and the
legs and thighs set in motion. It appeared to the uninformed part of
the bystanders as if the wretched man was on the eve of being restored
to life. This, however, was impossible, as several of his friends who
were under the scaffold had violently pulled his legs, in order to
put a more speedy termination to his sufferings. The experiment, in
fact, was of a better use, and tendency. Its object was to show the
excitability of the human frame, when this animal electricity is duly
applied. In cases of drowning or suffocation, it promises to be of
the utmost use, by reviving the action of the lungs, and, thereby,
rekindling the expiring spark of vitality. In cases of apoplexy, or
disorders of the head, it offers, also, most encouraging prospects for
the benefit of mankind. The professor, we understand, has made use of
_Galvanism_, also, in several cases of insanity, and with complete
success.”
This latter part—the cure of the insane by means of electricity—has
not been verified by practice. Their treatment was very inefficient,
although, even then, whips and chains were disappearing—especially in
the public madhouses, which were at that time Bethlehem, and St. Luke’s
Hospitals. Bethlehem Hospital was then situated in Moorfields, and
the major part of it had been built in 1675. Over the entrance gates
were two sculptured representations of Raving and Melancholy madness,
by Cibber; these are now in the hall of the present hospital. Patients
remained until they were cured, or for twelve months if not cured.
In the latter case if it was thought that a further sojourn might be
of use, they were re-admitted, and they also were permanently kept,
were they hopelessly incurable, and dangerous to society. There were
then about 260 patients who might be visited by their friends every
Monday and Wednesday, from 10 to 12 a.m. Visitors were only admitted
by an order from a governor—a vast improvement on the old plan, when
a visitor could always obtain admission by payment of a small fee. In
fact, in Queen Anne’s reign, and later, it formed, with the lions at
the Tower, and the wax figures at Westminster Abbey, one of the chief
sights in London, thus causing a scandal to the institution, and,
without doubt, injuring the patients.
[Illustration: WOMEN’S WARD, ST. LUKE’S—1808.]
St. Luke’s Hospital for the insane was in Old Street, City Road,
and was built because Bethlehem was inadequate to the relief of _all
indigent lunatics_; and their treatment was fairly rational, even those
who were obliged to wear straight jackets having their meals together,
so as to afford some little break in the monotony of their miserable
lives. Each patient had a separate sleeping apartment, and there were
two large gardens, one for men, the other for women, where pleasant
recreation could be taken in fine weather.
The other medical hospitals were—Bartholomew’s, St. Thomas’s, Guy’s,
St. George’s, the London, Middlesex, the Westminster Infirmary, and the
Lock Hospital, in Grosvenor Place. The majority of these had regular
medical schools, as now, but there were, also, many private lecturers
and demonstrators of anatomy, as also professors of natural and
experimental philosophy, and chemistry.
[Illustration]
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