Daily globe., 1879-01-26
a MEDIEVAL MISTAKE.
EY JAMES PATN,

A MEDIEVAL MISTAKE.
BY JAMES PATN.
But few Of my readers can, I conclude,
remember the Young England Gays,
when there was az attempt made 20 re-
vive in this country soIne fine old medic
val customs. Certain nigh-sou!ed in
0iyiduals VINO shall be nan1eless-- though
some Of them have made great names tor
themselves IN the interim under very un-
expected and different circumstances
conceived that they had actually nu!
their fingers upon that iiIusorv date "thc
good old tlmas,' ana would fain have
galvanized them back to life.
"They revived all usages thoroughly worn out
The souls Of them famed forth. the hearts of
Of them torn out"
and even got up tournament. & few
old fellows still remember it, witt, poor
Theodore Hooks joke upon Sir Canbell
OF Saodel, who, more by good luck than
good guidance Of his adversary's lance,
was somehow thrown OUT CT his family
seat It was the Renaissance period"
Of yuie logs and happy ytenantries-whose
bread, however, was not cheap-and it
Was hoped by certain noble enthusiasts
that Condescension and patronage would
lose all unpleasantness, and indeed fail to
be recognized. under the guise OF pa
ternal feu0alisn.
It was q failure, Of course: no one can
'revive the mastodon"--a circumstance
FOR which those who, like myself, find
mere bulls sufficiently alarming, have
reason to be grateful But though the
scheme fairly giittered with tinsel and
was much too gorgeously advertised, it
was not all pinchbeck; CT at all events
some OF those who believed in it had
about them the ring Of the true metal
albeit a little cracked.
Among the nobility, and in certain
great houses in the country, hospitality
was revived upon the most extensive scale,
and in some cases so splendiGly that it
made almost as great a hole in the estates
Of the family as though 1t had taken to
mining. Oxen were roasted whole where
formerly the guestJ only got his nlut-
ton outlet, and instead CT a kitchen range
there was bonfire.
Frank Selwyp, a young medical friend
OF mine at that time, used to speak
in high terms Of this Medieval Revival,
because he foysesaw that one Of it's conse-
quenoes, il generally carried out, would
be a universal Indigestion.
With plenty, however, it was held
necessary for historical consistency to
mix discomfort.
1t was said that the Marquis Of Mile
f1eurs (who had the best Norman blood
in Yorkshire) had discarded gas and even
COLA, and had his dining room lit by
men III steel with hambeaux; and that
Lora De B9uf slept OF an ivory couch
between the blankets and without
night gear, because that was the mode in
the Middle ages.
Frank Selwyn, however, know nothing
Of the doings Of the great people, except
by report, He was Of good family, but
they were not good enough to indulge
in these eccentricities without the risk
of being shut up as lunatics; and even if
he had had q taste that way himself, he
wanted his money for a very modern use
indeed-namely, to buy a practice with
in London. At six-and-twenty he pur-
chased a partnership with old DR.. Dal-
rymple, of Brown-street, Parklane, who
attended scme of the first folks in the
land, and never took fee from an unit.
tied person without being fully persuad
ed that he could afford it. His notions
were of the old school; he dcsed and
bled his noble patients till they were like
"the ruined shells Of hollow tower,,' and
then he built them up again and filed
them out with beefsteak and port wine.
He had indeed, no fancy for this new
fashion Of old fashions-no doctor is a
fanatic, it may pe observed, in any thing
but medicine or surgery-but as
some of his clients were addicted to it.
he looked upon the weakness with a very
charitable eye.
S'It is not enough nowadays to take
things as we find them, my dear Selwyn,"
he would say good-humoredly, "but as
we used to find them. Ifa patient thinks
fumigation Of boiled holIy-hock and
fennel will do him good, because his an
cester in King Johns time used it, let
him be fumigated. Never cross a pa
tient IN small things. Lord Vavasour
thinks there is nothing like gold for his
system, because Galen speaks of it as a
fine old remedy. In general way-that
is. to the general practitioner-th might
be dangerous, because, once in the sys-
tenn, gold remaines there, and one must
wait for the post mortem to get it out
again; but with our patients we always
see our money back. There fore give
them gold.'
Whatever Selwyn may have thought Of
DR.. Dalrymple professionally, he had no
doubt OF his wisdom as man of the
world, and was quite ready to profit by
l.. Moreover. his own conscience was
not burdened by adopting these abnor-
NAL modes Of treatment, since his prac-
tice lay among the middle class Of pa
tients-who were rarely bitten by this
mania-while his principal kept the big
wigs for himself. But on one occasion Dr..
Dalrymple fell a victim to the very NAL,
ady which it was his chief Office to cure
in others-the gout. It was his own
impression that he had caught it Of some
Of his patients. He felt certain, living
so moderately as he did, with only
glass Or two of Madeira at luncheon. and