The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A Book about .octors. By J. Cordv Jeaffreson,
author of " Novels and Novelists, " Crewe Rise,"
&c. 2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
Mr. Gordy Jeaffreson is already favourably
known to,the public as a writer of industry and abi-
lity. He has before appeared as a novelist and critic,
but has now entered a new path in literature.
The title of his present work will probably perplex
many readers, who will be mistaken if they antici-
pate a production of a scientific or medical cha-
racter. It is rather intended as a work of enter-
tainment, and this purpose it is well qualified to
fulfil. Taking the profession in various aspects,
the writer gives us a collection of anecdotes,
sketches; jokes, and incidents old and new; in-
terspersed with brief outlines of the careers of
some of the most celebrated professors of the heal-
ing art in all its branches, from Chaucer's physician
groundit in. Astronomy and Magyk Naturel,"
down to the rough eccentricities of Dr. Abernethy.
In his preface Mr. Jeaffreson tells us that he has
done his best to combine and classify old stories,
and also cautiously to select his materials. "Much
of the contents of both volumes has never before
been published, but after being drawn from a
variety of manuscript sources, is now for the first '
time submitted to the world. It would be difficult
to enumerate all the persons to whom the
writer is indebted for access to documents,
suggestions, and memoranda. He cannot, however,
let the present occasion go by without expressing
his gratitude to the College of Physicians, for the
prompt urbanity with which they allowed him to
inspect the treasures of their library." It will thus
be seen that the writer has not given us merely
superficial information, but has drawn his facts
from authentic sources. With regard to his
memoirs; we have sketches of Sir Thomas Browne
and Sir Kenelm Digby, the marvellous quack of
James the First's reign, also of Sydenham, Sir
Hans Sloane, and Heberden—three physicians
who, says the author, "completely bridge over the
uncertain period between old empiricism and modern
science." Dr. Radcliffe, " the Jacobite partisan, the
physician without learning, and the luxurious bon
vivant, who grudged the odd sixpences of his tavern
scores, and whose apothecary, Dandridge, died
worth £50,000," occupies a prominent place in many
of the anecdotes. He was Court physician in the
days of William 111. and Queen Anne, whose death
was by many attributed to his non-attendance. He
was eminently successful in his practice, and made
a large fortune. He was wont to say that " when
a young practitioner, he possessed 20 remedies for
every disease; and at the close of his career he found
20 diseases fur which he had not one remedy."
The poet Akenside, Dr. Lettsom, and the redoubted
quack, St. John Long, have each a separate chapter
devoted to them. The former, whatever his merits
in the literary world, does not appear to have pos-
sessed the humanity and consideration indispensable
to the proper exercise of his more practical profes-
sion. Of Lettsom many amusing anecdotes are
told. His own rhythmical account of himself
was as follews :
Though his writings show him to have been an enlightened
physician for his time, his system of practice was not of
course free from the violent measures which were univer -
sally believed in during the last century. He used to say
of himself, in doggerel English, that possibly was quite as
good as the Latin of his prescriptions :
" When patients comes to I,
I physics, bleeds, and sweats 'em;
Then—if they choose to die,
What's that to I—l lets 'em."
The extraordinary success attending the audacious
impostor, Sir onn Long, who by means of his pro-
fessed specific, brought unnecessary suffering to
many of his dupes, and caused the death of some, is
one of the most remarkable instances of public cre-
dulity. It is worthy of notice that the ready
credence given to his presumptuous doctrines was
not awarded in the days of public ignorance and
general belief in supernatural agency, but within
the memory of the existing generation. The whole
of his career, from his early occupation as an artist
down to the days of his extraordinary popularity,
is given in outline, and the melancholy case of Miss
Cashin, on whose death he was tried for man-
slaughter, is cited. The absurdity of the evidence
given in his favour by persons of rank and in-
fluence prove to what length the fanaticism of
dupes will go. His name, says Mr. Jeaffreson, is
still cherished by many enthusiasts, though
they might have learned wisdom from the
startling fact that he died at an early
age of the very disease he professed to cure.
On the important subject of fees we have some
entertaining and curious details. " Seleucus, for
having his son Antiochus restored to health, was
fool enough to give sixty thousand crowns to Era-
sistratus ; and for their attendance on the Emperor
Augustus, and his two uext successors, no less than
four physicians received annual pensions of two
hundred and fifty thousand sesterces a-piece." In
another page we learn that "Dr. Willis was re-
warded for his successful attendance on his Majesty
George 111. by £1,500 per annum for 20 years, and
£650 per annum to his son for life. When Dr.
Dimsdale, a Hertford physician, and subsequently
member for the borough, went to Russia to
inoculate the Empress Catherine and her son, he
was rewarded with a fee of 112,000, a pension
of £5OO per annum, and the rank of Baron."
Ihe Emperor Joseph of Austria was still more
liberal for less satisfactory service. He was so
pleased with the candour of his physician, in
telling him he could not live 48 hours, that he
gave him a pension of £2,000.
Louis XIV. gave his physician and his surgeon 75,000
crowns each, after successfully undergoing a painful and
at that time novel operation. By the side of such munifi-
cence the fees paid by Napoleon I. to the Faculty who at-
tended Marie Louise in March, 1811, when the Emperor's
son was born, seem quite insufficient. Dubois, Corvisart,
Bourdier, and Ivan were the professional authorities em-
ployed, and they had amongst them a remuneration of
£4,000, £2,000 being the portion assigned to Dubois.
Even more than fee gratefully paid does a humorous
physician enjoy an extra fee adroitly drawn from the hand
of a reluctant payer. Sir Richard Jebb was once paid three
guineas by a nobleman from whom he had a right to ex-
pect five. Sir Richard dropped the coins on the carpet,
when a servant picked them up and restored them—three,
and only three. Instead of walking off Sir Richard con-
tinued !lie search on the carpet. Are all the guineas
found ?" asked his lordship, looking round. "There must
be two still on the floor," was the answer, "for I have only
three." The hint of course was taken, and the right sum
put down.
The work is full of variety and entertainment,
and displays considerable ingenuity and research,
besides some skill in the arrangement of the
materials collected. The author has rather
sought to entertain and gratify his readers than
to perplex them with science, or to distress
them by tales of disease and suffering. As an
instance of the humorous element which pervades
his volumes, we may cite some of the names of the
chapter—" The Quarrels of Physicians," " The
Loves of Physicians," " Make way for the ladies,"
" The Doctor as a bon-vivant," "Pedagogues turned
Doctors," &c. As the best sample of the author's
style and manner we subjoin a few extracts
from his lively and agreeable pages.
NAVAL EXAMINATIONS.
Tho necessities of the long war caused the enrolment of
numbers of young men in the ranks of tho medical profes-
sion, whose learning was not their highest recommenda-
tion to respect. An old navy surgeon, of no small wit, and
an infinite capacity for the consumption of strong liquors—
wine, brandy, whisky, usquebaugh (anything, so long as
it was strong)—gave a graphic description to this writer of
his examination on things pertaining to surgery by the
Navy Board.
" Well," said the narrator, putting down his empty
glass, and filling it again with Madeira—" I was shown
into the examination-room. Large table, and half a dozen
old gentlemen at it. ' Big-wigs, no doubt,' thought I ;
and sure as my name is Symonds, they'll pluck me like a
pigeon.'
" Well, sir, what do you know about the science of
your profession ?' asked the stout man in the chair.
" More than he does of the practice, I'll be bound,'
tittered a little wasp of a dandy—a West End ladies'
doctor.
" I trembled in my shoes.
" Well, sir, continued the stout man, what would you
do if a man was brought to you during action with his arms
and legs shot off? Now, sir, don't keep the Board wait.
ing ! What would you do ? Make haste l'
me—' I should pitch him overboard,
" By Jove, sir l' I answered—a
and thoughtgoonjtuostsosmtriekoinnge
else I could be of more service to.'
the"yßpy —assed me eedvierreyetolnye,
spenirr_espastsbeudrmsteodiutrelcatulyghvi,ng ; and
The examiners doubtless felt that a young man who
could manifest such presence of mind pn such an occasion,
and so well reply to a terrorising.question, might be trusted
to act wisely on other emergencies.
Many stories of a similar kind are very old acquaintances
of most of my readers.
" What"—an examiner of the same Board is reported to
have said to a candidate—. would you have recourse to if,
after having ineffectually tried all the ordinary diaphore-
tics, you wanted to throw your patient, in as short a time
as possibje, into a profuse perspiration ?"
I should send himi here, sir, to be examined, was the
reply.
No less happy was the audacity of the medical student
so.sultdmyinoguhtdtoo,"yboiltuNnvittlhy
ainbqroukireendletgher surgeon,
t,,0
:At:::
able\ I
nn
,rnnaaett
Nvy,
Set it, sir," was the reply.
" Good—very good—you're a very pleasant, witty
youngv
man ; and doubtless you can tell me what muscles
of my
body I should set in motion if I kicked you, as you deserve
to be kicked, for your impertinence."
" You would set in motion," responded the youth, with
perfect coolness, " the flexors and extensors of my right
arm , for I should immediately knock you down."
AMATEUR ELEEDING.
The practitioners of phlebotomy, and the fees paid for the
operation, have differed widely. In the middle of the last
century a woman used the lancet with great benefit to her
own pocket, if not to her patients, in Marshland, in the
county of Norfolk. What her charge was is unknown,
probably; however, only a few pence. A distinguished
personage of the same period (Lord Radnor) had a great
fondness for letting the blood (at the point of an amicable
lancet—not a hostile sword) of his friends. But his lord-
ship, far from accepting a fee, was willing to remunerate
those who had the courage to submit to his surgical care.
Lord Chesterfield, wanting an additional vote for a coming
division in the *llse of Peers, called on Lord Radnor, and