Aged twenty-three, admitted 5th September 1822. This young man was a
surgeon and apothecary in Southwark, and his derangement is attributed
to the intensity of professional study and application. When he came
here he was impressed with a notion that he was principal apothecary
to the King, and was to be raised to the dignity of a baronet. He
has written several letters, intended for Dr. Cholmley, urging him
to forward his views, and confirm his appointment as apothecary to
his Majesty; and to the Lord Bishop of Durham, and others, to obtain
his baronetcy. As to the former, he urges his ample qualifications;
for he has walked the hospitals, attended lectures, and passed his
examinations at the College of Surgeons and Apothecaries’ Hall, and
cannot see what should delay the confirmation of his appointment; and
as to the latter, he thinks himself quite old enough to be a baronet,
and knows no reason why he should not be one. His views of advancement
are not confined to these two points; for he looks to matrimony as
an important round in the ladder of elevation. He wants to obtain a
wife with property: ten or fifteen thousand pounds, or so; but even
five thousand would do, if no more could be got; and if any one would
procure for him a wife with such a portion, he would have no objection
to make him a handsome present of five or ten pounds. He would not be
over particular as to the lady’s person or education. If he should like
her, he would live with her a short time, perhaps: but if not, he would
allow her something handsome to live on: half a guinea a week, or so,
he should think might do. He has no particular wish to see the lady
before-hand, nor to waste time in the tedious forms of courtship: when
she comes to church to be married would be quite time enough. He has a
high opinion of his own personal symmetry, views himself in the glass,
when he has an opportunity, examines the proportions of his limbs, and
asks all about him what they think of him.
Besides his medical and anatomical talents, he assumes deep knowledge
in theology and moral philosophy; and he has written here several
sermons, moral essays, and treatises on human nature, as he calls them;
but all in a style of wildness and incoherency perfectly congenial
to the deranged state of his intellects, and not legible, in any
connection, for two lines together.
His professional pursuits frequently occupy his anxiety in the round of
miscellaneous topics. At one time he is extremely busy on subjects of
anatomy; at another, in making out accounts of money due to him from
his patients, while in practice. But in no two bills made out for the
same person do his charges correspond. That which is charged at ten
shillings one day, is but five shillings the next; or perhaps fifty,
according, as he says, to his consideration of persons, and their
circumstances.
He is ever starting from one subject to another, and in that unsettled,
uneasy state, which Dean Swift termed “the fidgets.” Sometimes he
proposes going into the army; but not abroad, as he does not like,
nor understand, fighting: at other times he proposes to travel, for
the two-fold purpose of improving his knowledge, and affording him
opportunities of gaining a rich wife. But at all times he assumes great
consequence, is highly susceptible of the least imaginary slight,
extremely irritable, and prompt to violence on those at whom he takes
offence, but is much afraid of being hurt in the encounter.
His friends and connexions are respectable, and extremely attentive to
him since his confinement.