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 ESSAYS AND ORATIONS, 
 
 READ AND DELIVERED 
 
 THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ; 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPENING OF THE 
 TOMB OF KING CHARLES I. 
 
 Sir henry HALFORD, Bart., M.D., G.C.II., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF rnP. COLLEGE. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIII.
 
 LONDON 8 
 
 PRINTED BY WHXTAM CLOWES, 
 
 Duke Street, Lamteth.
 
 \833 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Of the following small collection of Papers, 
 the two first were written for a work called 
 ' The Transactions of the Royal College of 
 Physicians,' and were published in the fourth 
 and fifth volumes of the series. The third 
 was meant for the same work, but it was 
 read at an evening meeting of the College, 
 which was attended by many eminent cha- 
 racters in the church and in the law, as well 
 as a numerous body of the profession. 
 
 The subsequent ones were written ex- 
 pressly for a mixed audience, to whom it was 
 probable that a strictly professional paper 
 would be less acceptable than one on a
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 medical subject capable of being illustrated 
 by literature, (a common bond of connexion 
 of all the liberal professions,) or whicli ad- 
 mitted of a discussion of the duties and 
 offices of a physician in that last scene of 
 human life in which every man, sooner or 
 later, must appear and bear his part. The 
 conduct of a physician on whom is fixed the 
 only hope of saving life, and on whom the 
 dying look often rests before the eye is 
 closed for ever, may fairly be thought in- 
 teresting to every hearer. 
 . Papers so addressed to an audience have 
 something of a rhetorical character about 
 them, and approach the nature of the Latin 
 Orations which follow. The first of these 
 was given many years ago in commemora- 
 tion of the Benefactors and eminent Physi-
 
 PUEFACE. V 
 
 cians of" the College ; the second on occa- 
 sion of opening the new building, in 1825. 
 The account of what appeared on opening 
 the Coffin of King Charles I. is a reprint 
 of a former paper, and the drawing which 
 accompanies it is a faithful representation 
 of the countenance of the King at that time, 
 (1813.)
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Essay Page 
 
 I. 0?i the Climacteric Disease .... I 
 
 II. On the Necessity of Caution in the Estima- 
 
 tion of Symptoms in the last Stages of some 
 Diseases . . . . . . .15 
 
 III. On the Tic Douloureux 31 
 
 {Read April, 18280 
 
 IV. Popular and Classical Illustrations of Insanity 47 
 
 IRead June, 1820.) 
 
 V. On the Influence of some of the Diseases of 
 
 the Body on the Mind 57 
 
 QRerid Februari/,im\.^ 
 
 . 81 
 
 VI. On the Kauiro,- of Aretseus 
 
 {Rend February, 1830 
 
 VII. On the Treatment of Gout 
 
 CRenrf June, 1831.) 
 
 99 
 
 VIII. On the Phlegmasia Dolens . . . .111 
 
 (Read April, 1832.) 
 
 IX. On the Treatment of Insanity, particularly the 
 
 Moral Treatment 121 
 
 {Read January 28, 1833.) 
 
 X. On the Deaths of some Illustrious Persons of 
 
 Antiquity 145 
 
 {Read May, 1833.)
 
 Vni CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 An Account of what appeared on opening the Coffin 
 of King Charles I., in the Vault of King Henry 
 VIII., in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on the 1st 
 of April, 1813 i 
 
 Oratio in Theatre CoUegii Regalis Medicorum Lon- 
 dinensis, ex Harveii institute, habita die Octob. 
 xviii., an. m.dccc xxxiii 
 
 Oratio in Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis 
 .^dibus novis, habita die Dedicationis, Junii xxv., 
 MDCCCXXV. Iv
 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. 
 
 The human constitution, in its progress to 
 maturity, midergoes repeated changes, by 
 which its energies are developed ; and -it 
 reaches at length that degree of perfection, 
 whatever it may be, of which the individual 
 nature is capable. 
 
 Other changes, too, of an important kind, 
 generally occur in the decline of life ; and 
 philosophers have amused themselves with 
 calculating the period at which these must 
 happen, from the successive -iblterations 
 which the frame underwent in early youth ; 
 not taking into their account the influence 
 which moral causes have in our progress 
 
 through life, in disturbing the regularity of 
 
 B
 
 2 CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. [Ess. I. 
 
 natural processes, nor considering that va- 
 rious accidents and habits of living more 
 frequently determine the number of a man's 
 years, than the strength of the stamina with 
 which he was born. 
 
 It will not be disputed, however, that 
 the alteration of the condition of the sys- 
 tem in age is not so well marked as that 
 which took place in the beginning of life ; 
 and it must be admitted, that in some per- 
 sons who have reached very great age, no 
 such alteration has been manifested at the 
 epochs which have been called climacteric. 
 The period of the occurrence of this change 
 in men, in general, is so very irregular, 
 that it may be occasionally remarked at 
 any time between fifty and seventy-five 
 years of age ; and I will venture to ques- 
 tion, whether it be not, in truth, a disease, 
 rather than a mere declension of strength, 
 and decay of the natural powers. To the
 
 Kss. I.] CLIMACTERIC DISKASE. 3 
 
 argument by which it is maintained tlnit it 
 is mere decay, it may be sufficient to an- 
 swer, that men frequently rally from the 
 languid and feeble condition of their sys- 
 tem into which this change had thrown 
 them — become, to a certain degree, them- 
 selves again, and live for years afterwards. 
 
 But it appears to me to have the signs 
 of a marked and particular disease ; and I 
 would describe it as a falling away of the 
 flesh in the decline of life, without any ob- 
 vious source of exhaustion, accompanied 
 with a quicker pulse than natural, and an 
 extraordinary alteration in the expression of 
 the countenance. 
 
 Sometimes the disorder comes on so gra- 
 dually and insensibly that the patient is 
 hardly aware of its commencement. He 
 perceives that he is sooner tired than usual, 
 and that he is thinner than he was ; but 
 yet he has nothing material to complain of. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. [Ess. I. 
 
 In process of time, his appetite becomes se- 
 riously impaired : his nights are sleepless; 
 or, if he gets sleep, he is not refreshed by 
 it. His face becomes visibly extenuated, 
 or perhaps acquires a bloated look. His 
 tongue is white, and he suspects that he has 
 a fever. 
 
 If he asks advice, his pulse is found 
 quicker than it should be, and he acknow- 
 ledges that he has felt pains occasionally 
 in his head and chest, and that his legs are 
 disposed to swell ; yet there is no deficiency 
 in the quantity of his urine, nor any other 
 sensible failure in the action of the abdo- 
 minal viscera, excepting that the bowels 
 are more sluggish than they used to be. 
 
 Sometimes the headach is accompanied 
 with vertigo ; and sometimes severe rheu- 
 matic pains, as the patient believes them to 
 be, are felt in various parts of the body, 
 and in the limbs ; but, on inquiry, these
 
 Kss. I] CL13IACTERIC DISEASE. 5 
 
 have not the ordinary seat, nor the com- 
 mon accompanmients of rheumatism, and 
 seem rather to take the course of nerves, 
 than of the muscular fibres. 
 
 In the latter stages of this disease, the 
 stomach seems to loose all its powers ; the 
 frame becomes more and more emaciated ; 
 the cellular membrane, in the lower limbs, 
 is laden with fluid ; there is an insurmount- 
 able restlessness by day, and a total want 
 of sleep at night; the mind grows torpid 
 and indifferent to what formerly interested 
 it; and the patient sinks at last, seeming 
 rather to cease to live, than to die of a mor- 
 tal distemper. 
 
 Such is the ordinary course of this dis- 
 order in its most simple form, when it 
 proves fatal. When the powers of the con- 
 stitution are superior to the influence of the 
 malady, the patient loses his symptoms 
 gradually, recovers his rest and his appetite,
 
 G CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. [Ess. I. 
 
 and, to a certain degree, his muscular 
 strength and flesh ; but the energies of his 
 frame are never again what they were be- 
 fore, nor does the countenance recover its 
 former volume and expression. 
 
 But it is seldom that we have an op- 
 portunity of observing this malady in its 
 simple form ; and never, I believe, but in a 
 patient whose previous life has been en- 
 tirely healthy. We find it generally com- 
 plicated with other complaints, assuming 
 their character, and accompanying them 
 in their course ; and perhaps this may be 
 the reason why we do not find the climac- 
 teric disease described in books of nosology 
 as a distinct and particular distemper. It 
 blends itself with the effects of any fixed 
 organic mischief in the constitution; takes 
 on the appearance of any periodical irrita- 
 tion to which a patient may have been sub- 
 ject, or adopts the features of a casual dis-
 
 Ess. I.] CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. 7 
 
 ease. When it is associated with organic 
 mischief, it is difficult to distinguish the cli- 
 macteric complaint from that train of symp- 
 toms which commonly supervenes sooner 
 or later, on diseased structure ; but its 
 presence ought to be suspected if the com- 
 plaints are all unusually exasperated, if 
 a fatal result be threatened earlier than is 
 usual in the common course of things, and, 
 above all other indications, if that character 
 be impressed on the countenance which pe- 
 culiarly distinguishes this disorder. 
 
 When a patient has been subject fre- 
 quently to periodical attacks of goat, it 
 readily adopts the signs of this indisposi- 
 tion ; but the patient complains that his 
 gout is not so perfect as it ought to be — 
 that the disease lingers — that he does not 
 find the relief he has formerly experienced 
 at the same period of a fit of the gout, and 
 grows weary at length of repeated efforts
 
 8 CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. [Ess. I. 
 
 made, in vain, to assist him in throwing out 
 a more vigorous disease. 
 
 When it combines itself with an acci- 
 dental disorder — a common cold, for in- 
 stance, the symptoms of catarrh continue to 
 manifest themselves, and even to predomi- 
 nate throughout the greater period of the 
 duration of the climacteric disease, and so 
 hide from the patient and his friends, who 
 wonder he does not get well, a sense of his 
 danger, until at length the extraordinary 
 protraction of the complaint, and an un- 
 usual decay of flesh and strength, obtrude 
 the painful truth that there is some defi- 
 ciency of vital power in his system. 
 
 I should observe, that though this climac- 
 teric disease is sometimes equally remark- 
 able in women as in men, yet most certainly 
 I have not noticed it so frequently nor so 
 well characterized in females. Perhaps the 
 severe, affections of their system, which
 
 Ess. I.] CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. 9 
 
 often attend the bearing of children, or, 
 what is more likely, the change which the 
 female constitution undergoes at the cessa- 
 tion of the catamenia, may render subse- 
 quent alterations less perceptible. 
 
 Of the various immediate causes to which 
 this malady may owe its commencement, 
 there is none more frequent than a com- 
 mon cold. When the body is predisposed 
 to this change, any occasion of feverish ex- 
 citement, and a privation of rest at the same 
 time, will readily induce it. I have known 
 an act of intemperance, where intemperance 
 was not habitual, the first apparent cause of 
 it. A fall, which did not appear of conse- 
 quence at the moment, and which would 
 not have been so at any other time, has 
 sometimes jarred the frame into this dis- 
 ordered action. A marriage contracted late 
 in life has also afibrded the first occasion 
 to this change ; but, above all, anxiety of
 
 10 CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. [Ess. I. 
 
 mind and sorrow have laid the surest foun- 
 dation for the malady in its least remediable 
 form. 
 
 The effects of grief on the body, physi- 
 cians have daily occasion to witness and 
 deplore ; but they remark that its influ- 
 ence is very different at an early from what 
 it is at a late period of life. A mind ac- 
 tively engaged, in youth, in the pursuit of 
 fame and fortune, is hardly vulnerable by 
 any disaster which does not immediately 
 stop its career of success ; and if a deep 
 impression be made by misfortune, new 
 schemes of ambition and the gradual in- 
 fluence of time contribute to obliterate it; 
 but sorrow late in life has fewer resources, 
 and more easily lets in disease. Have a 
 man's circumstances been suddenly over- 
 whelmed by some unexpected calamity ? — 
 there is not time to repair his losses, to 
 recover his station in society, and he pines
 
 Ess. I.] CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. 11 
 
 in gloomy despondency. Or has death in- 
 flicted the wound in his peace of mind? 
 At this time of life it may be the partner 
 of all his happiness and all his care has 
 been torn from him ; or a child, who had 
 grown up to be his comfort and support ; 
 or perhaps a friend_, a contemporary, with 
 his regret for whom there is mixed an ap- 
 prehension that the next blow may fall on 
 himself; and if at this moment a survey of 
 past life be not more consolatory than the 
 prospect of what remains, adieu to that 
 animating and enlivening hope — which is 
 cheerfulness — which is health. 
 
 Physicians will not expect me to propose 
 a cure for this malady. In fact, I have 
 nothing to offer with confidence in that 
 view beyond a caution that the symptoms 
 of the disease be not met by too active a 
 treatment. It is not very improbable that 
 this important change in the condition of
 
 12 CLIiMACTElllC DISEASE. [Ess. I. 
 
 the constitution is connected with a de- 
 ficiency in the energy of the brain itself, 
 and an irregular supply of the nervous in- 
 fluence to the heart. Whatever, therefore, 
 would weaken the general system must be 
 detrimental ; and it seems in all cases of 
 this kind more prudent to direct local than 
 general evacuations for the relief of occa- 
 sional congestions in the blood-vessels. 
 
 For the torpor of the stomach and diges- 
 tive organs, the warmer purgatives are ge- 
 nerally preferable to those of a saline kind ; 
 and I have often been better satisfied with 
 the eflfect of Decoctum Aloes Compositum 
 than that of other evacuants. 
 
 If the system appear to be surmounting 
 its difficulties, the Bath water may be re- 
 commended with probable advantage, par- 
 ticularly if the stomach has been weakened 
 by intemperance, and still more especially 
 if symptoms of gout shall have been blended
 
 Ess. 1.] CLIMACTERIC DISEASE. 13 
 
 with those of the climacteric malady in its 
 course. 
 
 For the rest * the patient must minister 
 to himself.' To be able to contemplate witli 
 complacency either issue of a disorder vvhicli 
 the great Author of our being may, in his 
 kindness, have intended as a warning to us 
 to prepare for a better existence, is of pro- 
 digious advantage to recovery, as well as to 
 comfort, and the retrospect of a well-spent 
 life is a cordial of infinitely more efficacy 
 than all the resources of the medical art.
 
 ESSAY II. 
 
 NECESSITY OF CAUTION IN THE ESTIMA- 
 TION OF SYMPTOMS IN THE LAST STAGES 
 OF SOME DISEASES. 
 
 It is of great importance to the character of 
 a physician to be able to foretell the issue 
 of a disease ; and it is of essential comfort 
 to the friends of his patient, if the malady 
 has been an incurable one, that he should 
 have apprised them that he expected a fatal 
 termination of it. Where this has not been 
 done, the poignancy of the grief of the family 
 is liable to be increased by a reflection that 
 the physician himself was taken by surprise, 
 and, therefore, probably had not made use 
 of all the resources of his art, by which the 
 catastrophe might have been prevented. 
 On the other hand, if with discretion and
 
 16 CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II. 
 
 feeling he had disclosed his apprehensions 
 of the fatal result, their sorrow would be 
 mitigated by a conclusion that every thing 
 had been done to save life which skill could 
 suggest, and their future confidence in that 
 physician's assistance would be confirmed 
 and increased. 
 
 The art of physic has been called a con- 
 jectural one ; and so it is, if that term be 
 construed to mean only that uncertainty 
 which attaches to all reasoning from what 
 has happened to what will therefore hap- 
 pen again, — in other words, to inferences 
 drawn from general results, and applied 
 to particular instances; but this is the only 
 legitimate reasoning of which the science of 
 medicine, in common with many other sci- 
 ences, admits ; and it suggests, therefore, 
 the necessity of recording facts, carefully 
 ascertained by repeated experience. Were 
 this done by every physician of extensive
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 17 
 
 practice, what appears extraordinary in a 
 single instance would become familiar by 
 repeated observation, and the difficulty of 
 prognosticating would be materially dimi- 
 nished, to the great credit of physic, and to 
 the satisfaction of its professors. 
 
 It often happens at the latter end of some 
 diseases, both of an acute and a chronic 
 nature, that appearances present themselves 
 of a very equivocal and delusive nature, 
 with which the issue of the malady does not 
 correspond. This is most frequently the 
 case when the resistance of the constitution 
 against the influence of the disease has been 
 long protracted, or when the struggle, 
 though short, has been very violent. Here 
 a pause in nature, as it were, seems to take 
 place; the disease 'has done its worst,' all 
 strong action has ceased, the frame is fa- 
 tigued by its efforts to sustain itself, and a 
 general tranquillity pervao^es the whole
 
 18 CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II. 
 
 system. This condition of comparative ease 
 the eager wishes of friends misconstrue into 
 the commencement of recovery, and the more 
 readily so as the patient himself being 
 appealed to to confirm their anxious hopes, 
 having lost some of his sufferings, admits, 
 perhaps, that he is better. 
 
 The physician, however, must not be so 
 misled. He must exercise his soundest 
 judgment under such circumstances. He 
 must satisfy himself that there exists real 
 ground of improvement. For if he lend 
 himself to such hopes unwarily, he com- 
 promises his own character, and runs a risk 
 of aggravating exceedingly the painful feel- 
 ings of the family. 
 
 The junior part of our profession, — those 
 wlio have not yet lived as many years in 
 the exercise of it as I have done, will take 
 it in good part, I hope, if I point out some 
 maladies in which such delusive appear-
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 19 
 
 ances are most apt to take place, and 
 suggest that caution to them in the esti- 
 mation of symptoms which I have found it 
 necessary to employ myself. 
 
 I have seen this fallacious truce in four 
 or five instances of inflammation of the 
 brain, particularly where the membranes 
 covering it have been inflamed, producing 
 phrenzy. 
 
 A young gentleman of family, about 
 twenty-five years of age, took cold whilst 
 under the influence of mercury. The disease 
 increased daily, until it was accompanied 
 at last by so much fever and delirium, as 
 made it necessary to use not only the most 
 powerful medicines, but also personal re- 
 straint. At length, after three days of in- 
 cessant exertion, during which he never 
 slept for an instant, he ceased to rave, and 
 was calm and collected. His perception 
 of external objects became correct, and they 
 
 C2
 
 20 CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II. 
 
 no longer distressed him, and he asked, 
 pressingly, if it were possible that he could 
 live? On being answered tenderly, but 
 not in a way calculated to deceive, that it 
 was probable he might not, he* dictated 
 most affectionate communications to his 
 friends abroad, recollected some claims 
 upon his purse, ' set his house in order,' and 
 died the following night. The reason why 
 so unfavourable an opinion was entertained 
 of his state, was, that the apparent amend- 
 ment was not preceded by sleep, and was 
 not accompanied by a slower pulse ; two in- 
 dispensable conditions_, on which only a 
 
 * My friend, Dr. Heberden, when I mentioned this case to 
 him, showed me a note which his father had received from 
 a patient, written in the interval of the subsidence of a pa- 
 roxysm of phrenzy and his death, which happened about 
 fifteen hours afterwards. The note is of some length, and 
 is written correctly. 
 
 See the chapter of Aretaeus on the Kavims ; as remarkable 
 for the sublimity of the ideas which it contains, as for the 
 beauty of the Ionic Greek in which they are expressed.
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 21 
 
 notion of real improvement could be justi- 
 fied. But here was merely a cessation of 
 excitement occasioned by a diminution of 
 power, and by a mitigated influence of the 
 action of the heart upon the brain. 
 
 In inflammation of the bowels_, generally, 
 it is so notorious that mortification often 
 follows a cessation of pain, that I do not 
 think it necessary to dwell upon this form 
 of disease with a view of cautioning physi- 
 cians ; but in that partial inflammation of 
 the intestines which a strangulation of a 
 portion of it in hernia produces, how often 
 have I had occasion to deplore the disap- 
 pointment and broken hopes of relatives, 
 who, having been made happy by the as- 
 surance of the surgeon that he had reduced 
 the protruded bowel, and that now all 
 would be well, in only a few hours after- 
 wards were doomed to lament the patient's 
 death ! It is an invariable rule with me
 
 22 CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II. 
 
 Still to consider life as in jeopardy, until 
 the intestines shall have performed their 
 functions again ; all irritation having left 
 the stomach, and the skin remaining uni- 
 versally and equally warm. 
 
 An abscess in the liver, connected w^ith 
 gall-stones in the gall-bladder, will some- 
 times assume the type and character of a 
 regular intermittent, both in the periodical 
 recurrence of the paroxysm and in the 
 succession of its stages. I have seen it 
 treated as an intermittent, with the remedies 
 usually administered to prevent the return 
 of the fit. But a careful attention to the 
 history of the previous symptoms will en- 
 able the physician to discover the essen- 
 tial difference. He will learn that there 
 was a well-marked attack of inflammation 
 in the region of the liver in the first in- 
 stance, which has ended in the formation 
 of an imposthume. Besides the affection
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 23 
 
 of the brain in the second stage, that of re- 
 action will be observed to exceed in se- 
 verity that which attends any sure inter- 
 mittent, amounting, as it does, to an apo- 
 plectic stupefaction, under which, in fact, 
 the patient dies : and lastly, he will be 
 struck by the extraordinary alteration of the 
 colour of the skin, which, from being fair, 
 becomes of a deep brown tinge in the 
 paroxysm. I saw three instances of this 
 disease of the liver in the year 1805, all of 
 which assumed the appearance of intermit- 
 tent fevers. The subjects of them were 
 females, at that period of life when the ca- 
 tamenia had just ceased. Two of the pa- 
 tients died in the fourth attack, and were 
 examined after death. The life of the 
 third was protracted a fortnight by the 
 matter of the abscess having made its way 
 into the channel of the intestines, and being 
 thus passed off in a large quantity daily. 
 I will now mention a chronic disease —
 
 24 CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II. 
 
 dropsy in the chest — in attending which a 
 physician should be on his guard when he 
 gives an opinion in the advanced stages of 
 it. We have all seen, in cases of hydro- 
 thorax, a most material mitigation of the 
 embarrassment in breathing ensue on the 
 legs swelling, — so great a one, indeed, that 
 the patient and his friends have flattered 
 themselves that no ill remained beyond the 
 hydropic enlargement of the lower extre- 
 mities. I have to remark, that if this swel- 
 ling of the legs disappear without an in- 
 creased discharge of urine, the patient 
 generally dies very soon, and very fre- 
 quently suddenly ; whereas, if an ample 
 increased secretion by the kidneys follow 
 the relief of dyspnoea, then every good hope 
 of a temporary recovery, at least, may be 
 fairly entertained ; though it should be ac- 
 knowledged that this species of dropsy, 
 above all other, is most apt to return. 
 
 Another disease, which happily we see
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 25 
 
 now very rarely, the confluent small-pox, 
 requires a very guarded prognosis at a cer- 
 tain stage of it. The physician may fairly 
 acquiesce in the fears of a family, when, on 
 the completion of the eruption, he sees the 
 face and breast one mass of disease, and 
 may most reasonably doubt the capability of 
 the constitution to maturate and perfect so 
 large an eruption. But he must not hold 
 out unfounded hopes to the parents if the 
 malady proceed in the next stage in a most 
 satisfactory manner, beyond his expectations 
 — the pustules ripening fully, and the pro- 
 cess being complete : for alas ! at this very 
 moment it may be, the patient is sinking — 
 is dead ! — the powers of his constitution 
 being exhausted by the efforts it has made, 
 and no longer equal to the accomplishment 
 of a protracted cure. 
 
 Analogous, somewhat, to the maturation 
 of small-pox, is the reparation of the skin
 
 2^ CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II. 
 
 when it has been destroyed extensively by 
 burning. I have seen a good many in- 
 stances of this misfortune, four of which 
 proved fatal ; and yet in every one of the 
 four the wound had healed, with the ex- 
 ception of the space only of a crown-piece. 
 Three of them were aged women, who 
 were burnt principally on the trunk of the 
 body ; the fourth was a girl of seventeen 
 years of age, who was burnt from the heel 
 to nearly the top of the inside of the thigh. 
 The girl became hectic in the last fortnight 
 of her life. The others died, ' no warning 
 given,' by any mark or particular symptom 
 of danger. It is prudent, therefore, to con- 
 sider a patient still in hazard under such 
 circumstances, until the wound has been 
 entirely healed for some time, and the con- 
 stitution has recovered its usual energy. 
 
 I will trespass on the patience of the 
 college a moment further, whilst 1 mention
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 27 
 
 one more disease, which though it does 
 not fall precisely within the class of those 
 which are apt to manifest fallacious appear- 
 ances in their last stages, yet is at once so 
 dangerous and so soon fatal, that every 
 physician should be aware of it — ^the para- 
 lysis of the kidney. It is not of frequent 
 occurence, I presume, as I have seen only 
 five instances of it in twenty-seven years. 
 The last was about two years since ; and as 
 it was an exact copy of all the others which 
 had fallen under my notice, I will detail it 
 shortly : — 
 
 A very corpulent, robust farmer, of about 
 fifty-five years of age, was seized with a 
 rigor, which induced him to send for his 
 apothecary. He had not made water, it 
 appeared, for twenty-four hours ; but there 
 was no pain, no sense of weight in the loins, 
 no distension in any part of the abdomen, 
 and therefore no alarm was taken till the
 
 28 CAUTIOUS ESTIMATION [Ess. II, 
 
 following morning, when it was thought 
 proper to ascertain whether there was any 
 water in the bladder, by the introduction 
 of the catheter, and none was found. I was 
 then called, and another inquiry was made, 
 some few hours afterwards, by one of the 
 most experienced surgeons in London, whe- 
 ther the bladder contained any urine or not, 
 when it appeared clearly that there was 
 none. The patient sat up in bed and con- 
 versed as usual, complaining of some nausea, 
 but of nothing material in his own view ; 
 and I remember that his friends expressed 
 their surprise that so much importance 
 should be attached to so little apparent ill- 
 ness. The patient's pulse was somewhat 
 slower than usual, and sometimes he was 
 heavy and oppressed. 
 
 I ventured to state that if we should not 
 succeed in making the kidneys act, the pa- 
 tient would soon become comatose, and
 
 Ess. II.] OF SYMPTOMS. 29 
 
 would probably die the following night ; 
 for this was the course of the malady in 
 every other instance which I had seen. It 
 happened so ; he died in thirty hours after 
 this in a state of stupefaction. 
 
 All the patients who have fallen under 
 my care in this disease, were fat, corpulent 
 men, between fifty and sixty years of age ; 
 and in three of them there was observed a 
 remarkably strong urinous smell in the per- 
 spiration twenty-four hours before death. 
 Only one of them had complained of pre- 
 vious nephritic ailment. He had suffered 
 frequently, and had passed several small 
 calculi ; but there was no diflference in the 
 progress of his symptoms when the para- 
 lysis had once taken place. 
 
 If any water, however small the quantity, 
 had been made in these cases, I should have 
 thought it possible that the patients might 
 have recovered ; for it has often surprised
 
 30 ESTIMATION OF SYMPTOMS. [Ess. II. 
 
 me to observe how small has been the mea- 
 sure of that excrementitious fluid which the 
 frame has sometimes thrown off, and yet 
 preserved itself harmless ; but the cessation 
 of the excretion altogether, is universally a 
 fatal symptom in my experience, being fol- 
 lowed by oppression on the brain. The ob- 
 servations of other physicians will supply 
 them, no doubt, with abundant proof of the 
 necessity of that caution which I have sug- 
 gested above. My own memoranda, indeed, 
 would furnish many more instances ; but I 
 must confine myself to the limits of a short 
 paper, and leave room for the more valuable 
 communications of my colleagues.
 
 ESSAY III. 
 
 TIC DOULOUREUX. 
 
 The Tic Douloureux, in its severest form, 
 is one of the most painful and intractable 
 diseases to which the physician is called to 
 administer. 
 
 By its severest form, I mean that which 
 involves the several branches of the fifth 
 pair of nerves, expanded over the face and 
 the fauces, attacking with electric plunges, 
 as it were, and in a manner so peculiar that 
 no other pain is expressed like it. It is dis- 
 tinguished by its intensity from the milder 
 species of disease to which nerves in other 
 parts of the body are sometimes liable. 
 The latter generally depends upon some
 
 32 TIC DOULOUREUX. [Ess. III. 
 
 derangement of the digestive organs, and 
 usually gives way to a mode of treatment 
 calculated to bring on a better action of the 
 several abdominal viscera, and to restore 
 the nervous system to its healthy tone. 
 The former does not yield to any particular 
 treatment with which we are acquainted 
 at present, though it may be mitigated, 
 and the frame may be held up harmless 
 under its pressure for a great length of 
 time, by paying attention to the general 
 health. 
 
 That the seat of pain is not the seat of 
 disease always, is made manifest by the 
 failure of attempts to cut off the commu- 
 nication of the suffering nerves with the 
 brain. It may be a sympathetic disease, 
 therefore ; but to what disorder in the sys- 
 tem the association belongs, pathologists do 
 not yet seem to agree. 
 
 May I venture to throw out an opinion.
 
 Ess. III.] TIC DOULOUREUX. 33 
 
 founded on the observations with which 
 my experience has furnished me, that the 
 disease is connected with some preternatu- 
 ral growth of bone, or a deposition of bone 
 in a part of the animal economy where it is 
 not usually found, in a sound and healthy 
 condition of it, or with a diseased bone ? 
 
 The following cases have occurred to me, 
 and seem to give a degree of probability to 
 this surmise ; and I throw it out for the 
 consideration of the profession, in order that 
 a number of facts may be collected from 
 which a safe inference at length can be 
 drawn. 
 
 A lady, forty years of age, suffered under 
 the violent form of tic douloureux, at Brigh- 
 ton, notwithstanding the careful attention 
 and skill of a very judicious physician there. 
 On returning to town it was observed that 
 the rending spasms, by which the disease 
 is marked, were frequently preceded by an 
 
 D
 
 34 TIC DOULOUREUX. [EsS. lU. 
 
 uneasiness in one particular tooth, which 
 exhibited, however, no signs of unsound- 
 ness ; but the constancy of this symptom 
 was enough to justify the extraction of the 
 tooth in this instance, (though the failure of 
 this expedient to afford relief in general 
 does not encourage recourse to the opera- 
 tion,) and, on its being drawn, a large ex- 
 ostosis was observed at the root of the 
 tooth ; and the lady never suffered more 
 than very slight attacks, and those very sel- 
 dom, afterwards. 
 
 The Duke of G. was attended by Dr. 
 Baillie and myself for six weeks, under 
 this disease, in its most marked and painful 
 form, without deriving benefit from our pre- 
 scriptions. At length we thought it best to 
 advise him to repair to the sea-coast, in 
 hopes of renovating his shattered system by 
 taking bark there. After he had sojourned 
 a month by the sea-side, a portion of bone
 
 Esss, III.] TIC DOULOUREUX. 35 
 
 exfoliated from the antrum Highmorianum, 
 and the Duke recovered immediately, and 
 has never suffered the disease since. The 
 bone had been hurt probably by a fall from 
 his horse which the Duke had met with 
 some months before. 
 
 The late Earl of C. underwent martyr- 
 dom by this disease, and excited the warmest 
 sympathy of his friends by the agonies he 
 sustained for many years. He submitted to 
 the operation for the division of several 
 branches of the fifth pair of nerves re- 
 peatedly, by Sir Everard Home and by Mr. 
 Charles Bell, without obtaining more than 
 mere temporary relief. At length he was 
 seized by apoplexy, and lay insensible for 
 some days, and in great peril from the attack, 
 but finally recovered. After the apoplexy, 
 the paroxysms of the tic douloureux became 
 less frequent and less severe, and were 
 adm-inistered to satisfactorily by an ingenious 
 
 D 2
 
 3tj TIC DOULOUREUX. [Ess. III. 
 
 physician, who wrote his inaugural ex- 
 ercise on the disease. For the last year 
 or two of his life his Lordship had ceased to 
 suffer from the tic, and died at an advanced 
 age without any marked malady. His head 
 was not examined after death, and therefore 
 we are left to conjecture only what might 
 have been the immediate cause of his for- 
 mer sufferings. Whilst I attended him he 
 underwent repeated exfoliations of the alveo- 
 lar processes of the teeth, which I thought oc- 
 casioned his torment ; and to account for the 
 cessation of the complaint, I supposed that 
 these efforts to throw off diseased portions of 
 bone might have ceased, or that the apo- 
 plexy had disqualified the nerves for suffer- 
 ing so exquisitely ; but there might have 
 been besides, as some later instances have 
 made probable, disease in the bones of the 
 head. 
 
 The late Dr. P. fell a sacrifice to this
 
 Ess. III.] TIC DOULOUKEUX. 37 
 
 dreadful disease, after sustaining his tor- 
 tures for some years, with a con&tancy 
 which attracted all our pity and esteem, 
 and died at last under apoplexy. 
 
 No assistance which the experience of 
 any of us could afford him, gave him re- 
 lief or controlled the violence of the at- 
 tacks. On examining his head after death, 
 there was found an unusual thickness of the 
 OS frontis, where it had been sawn through 
 above the frontal sinuses, and at its juncture 
 with the parietal bones. There M'as dis- 
 covered also in the falciform process of the 
 dura mater, at a little distance from the 
 crista galli, a small osseous substance, about 
 three-eighths of an inch in length, rather less 
 in breadth, and about a line in thickness. 
 The vessels of the pia mater were turgid 
 with blood, and about an ounce of fluid oc- 
 cupied the ventricles. I lamented that the 
 frontal sinuses had not been examined, for
 
 38 TIC DOULOUREUX. [Ess. 111. 
 
 I remember he replied to a question which 
 I once put to him, as to his ever having ex- 
 perienced any suppuration within any bony 
 cavity, that he had twice suffered suppura- 
 tion in the frontal sinuses. 
 
 Dr. P. had submitted with great patience 
 to a division of several branches of the fifth 
 pair of nerves, under the judicious operation 
 of Sir Astley Cooper, who, on my mention- 
 ing to him the notion I entertained of the 
 cause of tic douloureux, was so obliging as 
 to show me the skull of a person who had 
 died of this disease in the country. The 
 internal surface of the frontal bone is a per- 
 fect rockwork. 
 
 All the cases which I have described 
 have fallen under my own immediate obser- 
 vation. I will now add another, with which 
 I have been favoured by a Fellow of the 
 College, a physician of high character and 
 eminence in one of the most populous towns
 
 Ess. 1 1 1. J TIC DOUJ.OUUIlUX. 39 
 
 in this island. It serves remarkably well 
 to confirm the opinions I have thrown out 
 in this paper. The unhappy sufferer was 
 a lady advanced in life : at the age of sixty- 
 five she was attacked with exquisite pain in 
 the branches of the fifth pair of nerves, on 
 the right cheek, nose, and temple, the tor- 
 tures of which, and the dreadful " clawings 
 and scratchings," to use her own words, were 
 said to surpass all that was ever witnessed, 
 and to set at nought all powers of descrip- 
 tion. For nearly ten years the paroxysms 
 continued to recur with more or less inter- 
 mission. The operation of dividing the 
 supra-orbital branch of the nerve was suc- 
 ceeded by an alleviation of pain during the 
 following five months. Various plans of 
 treatment were adopted, and it would be 
 diflScult to name any remedy which the 
 patient did not try. Those which satisfied 
 her most were carbonate of iron and vale-
 
 40 TIC DOULOUREUX. [Kss. III. 
 
 rian ; of the former of which she took, in 
 the course of her iUness, twenty-seven 
 pounds, and even more than that of the 
 valerian. Opiates gave relief at night, 
 but failed in the largest doses in the day- 
 time. Her intellect was not impaired, nor 
 was there any derangement of her general 
 health, until after a time a most distress- 
 ing dyspnoea occurred, with other symp- 
 toms of visceral disorder. She was free 
 from pain during the last six months of her 
 life, which was terminated at length by 
 apoplexy. The head was opened after 
 death, and an enormous thickening was 
 observed of the frontal, ethmoidal, and 
 sphenoidal bones, in one part to the extent 
 of half an inch ; and the anterior lobes 
 of the brain were curiously moulded and 
 indented by the thickened bone. There 
 was thickening also of the whole of the 
 cranium, but not to so great a degree any
 
 Ess. HI] TIC DOULOUHEUX. 41 
 
 where as in the parts which have just been 
 named. 
 
 Thus we have a demonstration of a bony 
 deposit proving a cause of pressure on the 
 brain and nerves, and from its situation this 
 must have acted especially on the branches 
 of the fifth pair. We see a reason also why 
 the division of the nerve has often proved 
 of little or no avail ; for where, as in this 
 case, the cause of pressure is nearer to the 
 brain than the place of operation, it can be 
 productive only of imperfect relief. It may 
 indeed be somewhat more effectual when 
 the source of irritation is an external one, 
 as, for example, the exfoliation of an alveo- 
 lar process ; but even then the divided ends 
 of the nerve may soon be reunited. It 
 appeared that the symptoms continued uni- 
 form whilst they were confined to the 
 branches of the fifth pair ; but is it not 
 probable that the subsequent dyspnoea and
 
 42 TIC DOULOUREUX. [Kss. 111. 
 
 visceral derangement might have been oc-' 
 casioned by the pressure being extended 
 to the par vagum, when the ossific process 
 had occupied the posterior portions of the 
 cranium also? Apoplexy was finally pro- 
 duced by the further increase of pressure, 
 and such seems to be the common termina- 
 tion of this dreadful disease, brought on 
 either by direct compression of the brain, 
 or, possibly, by the long-continued influence 
 of irritation ; and partly, perhaps, by the 
 effect of the opium which the tortures had 
 rendered, for so long a time, indispensable. 
 
 In the foregoing case the osseous enlarge- 
 ment injured directly, and at once, the af- 
 fected nerves. But there are other cases in 
 which no such immediate cause of irritation 
 can be discovered ; but the same nervous 
 branches are affected by sympathy, as it 
 should seem, with some distant suffering 
 part. It is well known that various parts
 
 Ess. 111.] TIC DOULOUREUX. 43 
 
 may sympathize with each other, even when 
 no direct connexion can be traced between 
 them, but the communication must be made, 
 as it were, through the intervention of the 
 brain. 
 
 Many instances of sympathy are familiar 
 to the profession, and a good account of the 
 sympathetic diseases would be valuable, by 
 enlarging our knowledge of nervous affec- 
 tions, with which we are acquainted at pre- 
 sent imperfectly only, and in detail. The 
 association of locked jaw with wounds in the 
 tendons of the extremities ; of chorea Sancti 
 Viti with disordered secretions of the abdo- 
 minal viscera ; of epilepsy with worms in 
 the intestines, and as the precursor of some 
 eruptive diseases about to appear on the 
 skin, — is familiar to us. To these common 
 and well-known ones the experience of 
 every physician will add others furnished by 
 idiosyncrasies in certain of his patients. I
 
 44 TIC DOULOUREUX. [Ess. 111. 
 
 have known a dose of rhubarb followed, 
 three several times, by an epileptic fit, in a 
 boy eleven years of age ;• and I have seen 
 the same medicine produce severe stran- 
 gury in a lady, which she assured me was 
 the constant effect of that remedy, not in 
 her own case only, but in the instances of 
 several of her family. The smallest dose of 
 ipecacuanha will annoy some people exceed- 
 ingly ; nay, the smell of it has been known 
 to produce an asthmatic stricture on the 
 chest. So that a prudent physician, in his 
 first intercourse with a family, will always 
 inquire of his patient whether he know, 
 from experience, any objection to the use of 
 the medicine about to be ordered. 
 
 An issue has been the cause of much dis- 
 turbance in the system by its irritation. The 
 late Dr. Darwin relates that he was called 
 to a distant part of the country in which he 
 resided, to visit the daughter of a nobleman
 
 Ess. III.] TIC DOULOUREUX. 45 
 
 subject to epileptic fits. Having arrived 
 late in the evening, he contented himself 
 with examining his patient carefully before 
 he vv^ent to bed, intending to write his pre- 
 scription in the morning. As he found 
 himself not inclined to sleep, he arose and 
 made his way to his patient's chamber again, 
 to inquire whether she had ever had an 
 issue ; the reply was in the affirmative, and 
 an issue in the arm was exhibited to him ; 
 upon which, without one word of remark, 
 he filliped the pea from its place, and the 
 young lady never experienced an epileptic 
 attack afterwards.
 
 I
 
 47 
 
 ESSAY IV. 
 
 POPULAR AND CLASSICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 
 OF INSANITY. 
 
 ' Ecstacy ! 
 
 My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time. 
 And makes as healthful music. It is not madness 
 That I have utter'd : bring me to the test, 
 And I the matter will re-word, which madness 
 Would gambol from,' — Hamlet, Act iii., Scene 4. 
 
 The following case, which occurred to me 
 in practice, in the month of January, 1829, 
 may serve to prove the correctness of Shak- 
 speare's test of madness, as above given. 
 
 A gentleman of considerable fortune in 
 Oxfordshire, about thirty-five years of age, 
 sent for his solicitor to make his will. He 
 was in habits of strict friendship with him, 
 and stated that he wished to add five hun- 
 dred pounds a year to his mother's jointure,
 
 48 SHAKSPEARE's [Ess. IV. 
 
 if she got well, she being then (to the know- 
 ledge of the solicitor and himself only) con- 
 fined as a lunatic ; to make a provision for 
 two natural children ; to leave a few trifling 
 legacies ; and then, if he died childless, to 
 make Mm, the solicitor, his heir. His friend 
 expressed his gratitude, but added that he 
 could not accept such a mark of his good 
 opinion, until he was convinced that it was 
 his deliberate judgment so to dispose of his 
 property, and that decision communicated 
 to him six months afterwards. 
 
 In about six weeks time the gentleman 
 became deranged, and continued in such a 
 state of excitement for a whole month, (dur- 
 ing which he was visited constantly by Sir 
 George Tuthill and myself,) as to require 
 coercion every day. At the expiration of 
 that time he was composed and comfortable. 
 But his languor and weakness bore a pro- 
 portion to his late excitement, and it was 
 
 I
 
 E98. IV.] TEST OF INSANITY, 49 
 
 very doubtful whether he would live. On 
 entering his room one day, to my question 
 how he found himself, he answered, — ' Very 
 ill, Sir ; about to die ; and only anxious to 
 make my will first.' This could hardly be 
 listened to under his circumstances, and he 
 was persuaded to forego that wish for the 
 present. The next day he made the same 
 answer to the same question, but in such a 
 tone and manner, as to extort from common 
 humanity, even at the probable expense of 
 future litigation, an acquiescence in his wish 
 to disburthen his mind. The solicitor was 
 sent for, and, having been with him the pre- 
 ceding evening, met us_, at our consultation 
 in the morning, with a will prepared accord- 
 ing to the instructions he had received before 
 the attach of disease, as well as to those given 
 the last night. He proposed to read this 
 to the gentleman in our presence, and that 
 we should witness the signature of it, if we 
 
 E
 
 50 SHAKSPEARe's [Ess. IV. 
 
 were satisfied that it expressed clearly his 
 intentions. It was read, and he answered, 
 * yes,' — * yes,' — 'yes,' distinctly to every 
 item, as it was deliberately proposed to him. 
 On going down stairs with Sir George 
 Tuthill and the solicitor, to consider what 
 was to be done, I expressed some regret that 
 we, the physicians, had been involved in 
 an affair which could hardly be expected to 
 terminate without an inquiry in a court of 
 law, in which we must necessarily be called 
 upon to justify ourselves for permitting this 
 good gentleman, under such questionable 
 circumstances, to make a will. It occurred 
 to me then, to propose to my colleague to go 
 up again into the sick room, to see whether 
 our patient could re-word the matter, as a 
 test, on Shakspeare's authority, of his sound- 
 ness of mind. He repeated the clauses 
 which contained the addition to his mother's 
 jointure, and which made provision for the
 
 Kss. IV.] TEST OF INSANITY. 61 
 
 natural children, with sufficient correctness ; 
 but he stated that he had left a namesake, 
 though not a relation, ten thousand pounds, 
 whereas he had left him five thousand pounds 
 only ; and there he paused. After which I 
 thought it proper to ask him, to whom he 
 had left his real property, when these lega- 
 cies should have been discharged^ — in whom 
 did he intend that his estate should be 
 vested after his death, if he died without 
 children? 'In the heir at law, to be sure,' 
 was the reply. Who is your heir at law ? 
 * I do not know.' 
 
 Thus he ' gambolled ' from the matter, and 
 laboured, according to this test, under his 
 madness still. 
 
 He died, intestate, of course, four days 
 afterwards ; and I owe it to the solicitor, the 
 friend, to testify that his conduct through- 
 out was strictly honourable. And I have a 
 pleasure in adding, that the heir at law has 
 
 E 2
 
 52 SHAKSPEARE's [Ess. IV. 
 
 generously made good the bequest to the 
 mother, and the provision for the natural 
 children, to the extent of more than thirty 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 It is always a subject for regret, when a 
 physician becomes a party to the doubts and 
 difficulties of a civil action ; and a prudent 
 man will, if possible, avoid committing him- 
 self upon questions, the natural uncertainty 
 of which is likely to be further perplexed 
 by legal ingenuity and contending interests. 
 Still there are cases of this kind in which 
 the medical practitioner cannot, without a 
 dereliction of duty, refuse to deliver his 
 opinion, and in which the parties concerned 
 have a right to the benefit of his judgment 
 and experience with respect to the question 
 of the patient's sanity of mind, as well as to 
 that of his bodily health. In cases of such 
 a nature there may be some value in a test 
 like that proposed by the poet ; by him, of
 
 Ess. IV.] TEST OF INSANITY. 6^ 
 
 whom it has been justly observed by Dr. 
 Johnson, that he is, * above all writers, at 
 least above all modern writers, the poet of 
 nature, the poet that holds up to his readers 
 a faithful mirror of manners and of life.' 
 
 Human nature, in fact, has been and is 
 always the same ; and the descriptions of it, 
 which we meet with in the ancient poets, 
 are at this day as true as when they were 
 originally drawn. It has twice occurred to 
 me to find the portraits which Horace has 
 given of madness exemplified to the life. 
 
 One case, that of the gentleman of Argos, 
 whose delusion led him to suppose that he 
 was attending the representation of a play, 
 as he sat in his bedchamber, is so exact, 
 that I saw a person of exalted rank under 
 those very circumstances of delusion, and 
 heard him call upon Mr. Garrick to exert 
 himself' in the performance of Hamlet. The 
 passage of Horace to which I allude is in
 
 54 SHAKSPEARe's [Ess. IV. 
 
 the second epistle of the second book, and 
 is the more curious as it specifies distinctly 
 that it was upon this one point only that the 
 gentleman was mad. I will give you the 
 passage : 
 
 Fuit baud ignobilis Argis, 
 
 Qui se credebat miros audire tragoedos, 
 In vacuo laetus sessor plausorque theatro ; 
 Caetera qui vitae servaret munia recto 
 More ; bonus sane vicinus, amabilis hospes, 
 Comis in uxorem, posset qui ignoscere servis 
 Et signo laeso non insanire lagense : 
 Posset qui rupem et puteum vitare patentem. 
 
 &c. &c. Epist. lib. ii, 2. 128. 
 
 In another well-known case, which justi- 
 fied the Lord Chancellor's issuing a writ 
 de lunatico inquirendo, the insanity of the 
 gentleman manifested itself in his appropri- 
 ating everything to himself, and parting 
 with nothing. When strongly urged to put 
 on a clean shirt, he would do it, but it must 
 be over the dirty one ; nor would he put off" 
 his shoes when he went to bed. He would 
 agree to purchase anything that was to be
 
 Ess. IV.] TEST OF INSANITY. 65 
 
 sold, but he would not pay for it. He was, 
 in fact, brouglit up from the King's Bench 
 prison, where he had been committed for 
 not paying for a picture valued at fifteen 
 hundred pounds, which he had agreed to 
 buy; and in giving my opinion to the jury, 
 I recommended it to them to go over to his 
 house, in Portland-place, where they would 
 find fifty thousand pounds worth of property 
 of every description ; this picture, musical 
 instruments, clocks, baby-houses, and bau- 
 bles, all huddled in confusion together, on 
 the floor of his dining-room. To such a 
 case what could apply more closely than the 
 passage — 
 
 Si quis eraat citharas, emptas comportet in unum, 
 Nee studio citharae, nee Musae deditus ulli ; 
 Si scalpra et foimas, non sutor ; nautica vela, 
 Aversus mercaturis : delirus et amens 
 Undique dicatur merito. 
 
 HoR. Sat. lib. ii. 3. 104. 
 
 I need not add that the jury found the 
 gentleman insane.
 
 56 TEST OF INSANITY. [Ess. IV. 
 
 Thus have some of the descriptions of the 
 poets, held to be imaginary, been realized 
 in life. And it is possible, that if the phy- 
 sician were to collect and apply the brief 
 notices of various disorders, which have been 
 thrown out by the great poets of antiquity, 
 he might not only illustrate the truth of the 
 descriptions drawn by those accurate ob- 
 servers of nature, but derive from them some 
 useful hints to assist him in his own obser- 
 vation of disease.
 
 57 
 
 ESSAY V. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF SOME OF THE DISEASES OF 
 THE BODY ON THE MIND. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 One of the most elegant exer- 
 cises of modern times is that of Sir George 
 Baker, on the influence of some of the 
 passions of the mind on the body, and on 
 the diseases to which they give rise. 
 
 I wish some of you would draw the coun- 
 terpart of this picture, and describe the effect 
 of diseases of the body on the mind. That 
 their influence is various and extensive — that 
 they depress and elevate the faculties — give 
 temporary power and permanent weakness — • 
 nay, that they often push reason from her 
 seat, and enthrone madness there — is evident
 
 58 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 to our observation daily. That their effect, 
 moreover, is different, according to- the dif- 
 ferent seats of the disorder, is equally re- 
 markable ; so that an experienced physician 
 is at no loss to conjecture what organ is 
 aggrieved, if the patient describe his sen- 
 sations accurately, even before he makes 
 use of those appliances to which we usually 
 have recourse, to enable us to form a correct 
 judgment of the whole of a case submitted 
 to us. 
 
 For what can be more in contrast with 
 each other, in their influence upon the 
 mental powers, than an indigestion and a 
 slight inflammation of the brain? A dis- 
 order in the digestive organs lays a weight 
 upon the mind. 
 
 ' Corpus onustum 
 Hesfernis vitiis animutn quoque praegravat una, 
 Atque affigit humo divinae particulara aurae.' 
 
 Horace. 
 
 It renders a man irresolute, infirm of pur-
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 59 
 
 pose, and both indisposed and unequal to 
 enterprise of any kind. Whilst a slight 
 inflammation of the brain gives a sharp- 
 ness* to his faculties, inspires spirit, quick- 
 ens ambition, and leads him to believe, like 
 Hotspur, that he can 
 
 * Pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon !' 
 
 I will not attempt, in a paper of this kind, 
 to do more than point out the influence on 
 the mind of some of the more marked and 
 simple chronic diseases, leaving it to your- 
 selves to fill up the outline by your ow^n 
 observations and experience. 
 
 Of Apoplexy I shall say but little, be- 
 cause, before the blow be struck, the patient 
 may have been merely torpid and indifferent 
 to scenes of whatever interest in which he 
 has lived ; and, when the stroke has befallen 
 him, you know that ' Si fractus illahatur 
 orbis,' he remains insensible to all that is 
 
 * ' Multaenim e corpore exist unt, quae acuant mentem, 
 miilta qua? obtundant." — Cic. Tusc. Lib. i. 33.
 
 60 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess, V. 
 
 passing; however violent the shock maybe, 
 ' nothing touches him.' 
 
 But the sequel of apoplexy is Palsy ; 
 and when that has supervened, and the 
 frame has been dismembered, then, indeed, 
 happy is the patient whose mind shall have 
 been disciplined when in health, and whose 
 moral habits shall have been well regulated 
 by reason and by good principles before he 
 was taken ill; for, otherwise, as all the 
 passions are let loose by the malady, (as is 
 the case in many instances, at least, in this 
 disease,) whilst the controlling power is en- 
 feebled, an irritability succeeds which makes 
 life intolerable to the sick man himself, and 
 to all around him. The tenderest offices, 
 administered with the most prudent attention 
 and care, fail to conciliate ; and he indulges 
 his anger, and dissolves into tears alternately, 
 alike without reason, until at length another 
 apoplectic blow deprives him of life. 
 
 By this distemper the great talents of
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 61 
 
 Marlborough were confounded in the latter 
 years of his life, and his powerful mind im- 
 paired. By this also was extinguished the 
 spirit of the celebrated Dean Swift : — 
 
 * From Marlbro's eyes the tears of dotage flow, 
 And Swift expires a driveller and a show.* 
 
 Dr. Johnson. 
 
 Epilepsy has this peculiarity about it, 
 that the patient who is so afflicted, though 
 an object of terror and of pity to those who 
 witness his struggles under a fit, yet, by the 
 mercy of heaven, he himself is unconscious 
 of the frightful attack. He sleeps after his 
 frame has been convulsed from head to foot, 
 and awakens unaware of all that has passed 
 — * himself again.' Repeated fits, however, 
 at length weaken the faculties ; his memory 
 suffers decay, his judgment becomes un- 
 sound, derangement follows, and this aliena- 
 tion of mind degenerates at last into idiocy. 
 I do not say that this is the course of all 
 epilepsies. Many attacks of epilepsy are
 
 62 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 symptomatic only of some irritation in the 
 alimentary canal, or of some eruptive disease 
 about to declare itself, or of other occa- 
 sional passing ills. So far Julius Caesar was 
 epileptic ; and so far it has been said was 
 Mahomet also. Of the former, Suetonius 
 records that he was ' valetudine prospera ; 
 nisi quod tempore extremo repente animo 
 linqui, atque etiam per mmnum exterreri 
 solehat' — a familiar sign of an oppressed 
 stomach. ' Comitiali quoque morho bis inter 
 res agendas correptus est,' probably from the 
 same cause. But these attacks were of no 
 consequence in deteriorating his masculine 
 mind. No ; the dreadful consequences which 
 I have detailed, as affecting the faculties, 
 belong to epilepsy as a primary disease, 
 connected with and originating in some or- 
 ganic mischief within the cranium. 
 
 In the Pulmonary Hectic or con- 
 sumption, particularly in the stage of in-
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 63 
 
 flammation, (and where tubercles in the 
 lungs are the occasion of the hectic fever, 
 the successive suppurations are preceded by- 
 inflammation,) how frequently have we seen 
 the delicate female frame lighted up, and 
 everything assume a bright and cheerful 
 aspect about her? New schemes of happi- 
 ness have been contemplated, new dresses 
 prepared, and everything was brilliant in 
 her prospect; whilst her parents lived under 
 the greatest apprehension and solicitude, the 
 physician foreseeing nothing but inevitable 
 fate for the poor victim whose distemper 
 has deluded her. 
 
 Let us contrast the effects of the hectic 
 upon the young female mind with those of 
 that disordered state which sometimes occurs 
 to females after the cessation of the sexual 
 peculiarity. 
 
 The subject of such an indisposition has 
 probably grown more corpulent ; she sits in
 
 64 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 an indolent posture, looks gloomy, hardly 
 speaks at all, and we learn from her attend- 
 ants that she lives under a constant ap- 
 prehension that some fancied evil is about 
 to befall her. She is suspicious, undecided 
 in all her movements, and manifests symp- 
 toms which differ in degree only from me- 
 lancholy mania. 
 
 The pathologist will look, perhaps, to the 
 different state of the circulation of the blood 
 in these two females for the difference of 
 their animal spirits ; and will conjecture 
 that the blood was more oxygenated in the 
 younger one, by a more rapid circulation 
 through the lungs, whereby the brain was 
 unusually stimulated ; whereas, in the elder 
 person, there was a stagnation in the liver, 
 giving rise to hypochondriasm, in conse- 
 quence of the more gorged, plethoric state 
 of the ventral and haemorroidal veins deter- 
 mined to that organ, since the sexual evacu- 
 ation had ceased.
 
 Kss. v.] ON THE MIND. 65 
 
 In those distressing cases in which the 
 heart and its principal vessels are the seat 
 of organic disease*, the effect of the impedi- 
 ment thus occasioned to the circulation is 
 usually felt in paroxysms of tremendous suf- 
 fering. During their prevalence, the pa- 
 tient is agonized by a sense of instant 
 suffocation. He sits, (for he cannot lie 
 down, )expecting dissolution every moment, 
 and may be said to die many times before 
 his death. Yet, in the intervals between the 
 attacks, his mind is often cheerful, and his 
 spirits buoyant. He is conscious of the com- 
 parative freedom with which the vital func- 
 tions now proceed, feels himself still full of 
 life, and indulges sanguine hopes of reco- 
 very. Hence^ the subjects of such painful 
 disorders are commonly less dejected than 
 those who suffer only from a derangement of 
 
 * Ossification of the valves, or deposits of bone in the 
 aorta or coronary arteries.
 
 66 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 the stomach. Whether it be that Providence 
 has specially allotted a certain alacrity of 
 spirit and cheer of mind to the victims of 
 this disease of the main-spring of life, as an 
 alleviation of their sufferings, or w^hether 
 this may be referred to the general principle 
 which Dr. Paley has stated vi^ith respect to 
 pain, ' that its pauses and intermissions be- 
 come positive pleasures ; that it has the 
 power of shedding a satisfaction over the in- 
 tervals of ease which few enjoyments ex- 
 ceed.' This amiable philosopher adds, that 
 * the spirits of sick men do not sink in pro- 
 portion to the acuteness of their sufferings, 
 but rather appear to be roused and sup- 
 ported, not by pain, but by the high degree 
 of comfort which they derive from its cessa- 
 tion, or even its subsidency, whenever that 
 occurs, and which they taste with a relish 
 that diffuses some portion of mental com- 
 placency over the whole of that mixed state
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 67 
 
 of sensations in which disease has placed 
 them.' 
 
 That pain alone does not affect the facul- 
 ties, is manifested in that most excruciating 
 of all disorders, tic douloureux. Nay, where 
 pain is conjoined with other symptoms, cal- 
 culated to subdue the stoutest heart, as in 
 the progress of a fatal iliac-passion, it does 
 no violepce to the senses. In this dreadful 
 disease, in which hiccup, unquenchable 
 thirst, incessant vomiting, unspeakable in- 
 quietude, prevail for six or seven successive 
 days and nights before the scene of misery 
 be closed, yet does the patient maintain his 
 mental powers; and, spite of the constant 
 disappointment of his expectations of being 
 relieved by the operation of his medicine, 
 does he exercise his judgment and keep 
 up his hopes. 
 
 From such sufferings as these, death may 
 well be considered a happy release. Indeed, 
 
 F2
 
 68 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 before the glad tidings of pardon and peace 
 in a future life, on certain conditions, had 
 been proclaimed to the world by our Re- 
 deemer, so much intense suffering — nay, 
 much less than that which is endured by a 
 patient under a fatal ileus, was considered 
 by the most enlightened Romans as a suffi- 
 cient reason for ridding themselves abruptly 
 of life. The first book of Pliny's Letters fur- 
 nishes us with two instances of friends of his, 
 one of whom had recourse to this apparently 
 common practice ; and the other intended to 
 resort to it, if the physician should pronounce 
 his malady a mortal one. Their creed ad- 
 mitted an independent exercise of their free- 
 will and pleasure in the disposal of their 
 lives: — 
 
 Ipse Deus, simiil atque volam me so'.vet — 
 
 ■ Moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est. 
 
 Horace, Epist. 16. 
 
 But the Christian has a higher motive for
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 69 
 
 submitting himself to the will of Heaven, 
 and for taking his sufferings patiently. He 
 believes that the present life is a life of 
 probation only, and that vv^hat he now en- 
 dures may be a necessary trial of his faith 
 and obedience ; and that, by a merciful dis- 
 pensation, the great Creator may make use 
 of pain as an instrument by which He would 
 detach him from this beautiful world, in 
 which Infinite Goodness had set him down 
 only for a temporary sojournment, intend- 
 ing him for another and a better existence 
 hereafter. 
 
 Of the Q;-reat number to whom it has 
 been my painful professional duty to have 
 administered in the last hours of their lives, 
 I have sometimes felt surprised that so few 
 have appeared reluctant to go to ' the un- 
 discovered country from whose bourne no 
 traveller returns.' Many, we may easily 
 suppose, have manifested this willingness to 
 die, from an impatience of suffering, or from
 
 70 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 that passive inditference which is sometimes 
 the result of debility and extreme bodily ex- 
 haustion. But I have seen those vv^ho have 
 arrived at a fearless contemplation of the fu- 
 ture, from faith in the doctrine v\^hich our 
 religion teaches. Such men were not only 
 calm and supported, but even cheerful, in the 
 hour of death; and I never quitted such a 
 sick chamber without a wish that * my last 
 end might be like theirs.' 
 
 Some, indeed, have clung to life an- 
 xiously — painfully ; but they were not in- 
 fluenced so much by a love of life for its 
 own sake, as by the distressing prospect of 
 leaving children, dependent upon them, to 
 the mercy of the world, deprived of their 
 parental care, in the pathetic language of 
 Andromache — 
 
 N'yv S'av TioXKoc, •ni^Tim, (plXou 0.71:0 YlocTpos a/xagTwv. 
 
 These, indeed, have sometimes wrung my 
 heart. 
 
 And here you will forgive me, perhaps,
 
 Ess. V. ] ON 1 1 1 E Al 1 N D . 71 
 
 if I presume to state what appears to me to 
 be the conduct proper to be observed by a 
 physician in withholding, or making his 
 patient acquainted with, his opinion of the 
 probable issue of a malady manifesting mor- 
 tal symptoms. I own I think it my first 
 duty to protract his life by all practicable 
 means, and to interpose myself between him 
 and every thing which may possibly aggra- 
 vate his danger*. And unless I shall have 
 found him averse from doing what was ne- 
 cessary in aid of my remedies, from a want 
 of a proper sense of his perilous situation, 
 I forbear to step out of the bounds of my 
 province in order to offer any advice which 
 
 * See Cicero ' De Divinatione,' 11, 25. 
 
 At hoc ne homines probi faciunt, ut amicis impendentes 
 calamitates prsedicant.quas illi effugerenullo modo possint : 
 et medici, quanquam inlelligunt ssepe, tamen nunquam icgris 
 dicant illo morbo eos esse morituros. Omnis enim prae- 
 dictio mail turn probatur cum ad praedictionem cautio ad- 
 jungitur.
 
 72 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 is not necessary to promote his cure. At 
 the same time, I think it indispensable to let 
 his friends know the danger of his case the 
 instant I discover it. An arrangement of his 
 worldly affairs, in which the comfort or un- 
 happiness of those who are to come after 
 him is involved, may be necessary ; and a 
 suggestion of his danger, by which the 
 accomplishment of this object is to be ob- 
 tained, naturally induces a contemplation of 
 his more important spiritual concerns, a 
 careful review of his past life, and such 
 sincere sorrow and contrition for what he 
 has done amiss, as justifies our humble hope 
 of his pardon and acceptance hereafter. If 
 friends can do their good offices at a proper 
 time, and under the suggestions of the phy- 
 sician, it is far better that they should un- 
 dertake them than the medical adviser. 
 They do so without destroying his hopes, 
 for tlie patient will still believe that he has
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 73 
 
 an appeal to his physician beyond their 
 fears ; whereas, if the physician lay open 
 his danger to him, however delicately he may 
 do this, he runs a risk of appearing to pro- 
 nounce a sentence of condemnation to death, 
 against which there is no appeal — no hope ; 
 and, on that account, what is most awful to 
 think of, perhaps the sick man's repentance 
 may be less available. 
 
 But friends may be absent_, and nobody 
 near the patient in his extremity, of sufficient 
 influence or pretension to inform him of his 
 dangerous condition. And surely it is la- 
 mentable to think that any human being 
 should leave the world unprepared to meet 
 his Creator and Judge, ' with all his crimes 
 broad blown ! ' Rather than so, I have de- 
 parted from my strict professional duty, and 
 have done that which 1 would have done 
 by myself, and have apprized my patient of 
 the great change he was about to undergo.
 
 74 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 In short, no rule, not to be infringed 
 sometimes, can be laid down on this subject. 
 Every case requires its own considerations ; 
 but you may be assured, that if good sense 
 and good feeling be not wanting, no diffi- 
 culty can occur which you will not be able 
 to surmount with satisfaction to your pa- 
 tient, his friends, and yourselves. 
 
 Advice on some of these points, at least, 
 corresponding with that which I have pre- 
 sumed to offer you, is to be found in the 
 beautiful chapter of' Hippocrates*, ' tsqi 
 s\ja-)(riyi(i(r\)vr\g,' de decetiti ornatu ; and I as- 
 sure you it will amply repay you for the 
 trouble of referring to it by the gravity and 
 striking propriety of deportment which it 
 recommends. . 
 
 But, if in cases attended with danger in 
 private life, the physician has need of dis- 
 cretion and sound sense to direct his conduct, 
 * Vol. i., p. 5. Ed. Vander Linden.
 
 Ess. v.] ON THE MIND. 75 
 
 the difficulty must doubtless be increased 
 when his patient is of so elevated a station 
 that Ms safety becomes an object of anxiety to 
 the nation. In such circumstances, the phy- 
 sician has a duty to perform, not only to the 
 sick personage and his family, but also to 
 the public, who, in their extreme solicitude 
 for his recovery, sometimes desire disclosures 
 which are incompatible with it. Bulletins 
 respecting the health of a sovereign differ 
 widely from the announcements which a 
 physician is called upon to make in humbler 
 life, and which he entrusts to the prudence 
 of surrounding friends. These public do- 
 cuments may become known to the royal 
 sufferer himself. Is the physician, then, 
 whilst endeavouring to relieve the anxiety 
 or satisfy the curiosity of the nation, to 
 endanger the safety of the patient; or, at 
 least, his comfort ? Surely not. But whilst 
 it is his object to state as accurately as
 
 76 INFLUENCE OF DISEASE [Ess. V. 
 
 possible the present circumstances and the 
 comparative condition of the disease, he will 
 consider that conjectures respecting its cause 
 and probable issue are not to be hazarded 
 without extreme caution. He will not write 
 one word which is calculated to mislead ; 
 but neither ought he to be called upon to 
 express so much as, if reported to the patient, 
 would destroy all hope and hasten that ca- 
 tastrophe which it is his duty and their first 
 wish to prevent. 
 
 Meanwhile, the family of the monarch 
 and the government have a claim to fuller 
 information than can, with propriety or even 
 common humanity, be imparted to the public 
 at large. In the case of his late Majesty, 
 the King's Government and the Royal Fa- 
 mily were apprized, as early as the 27th of 
 April* (I hold in my hand the original let- 
 ters which gave the information to the 
 
 * His Majesty ditd on the ioih of Junt'.
 
 Kss. v.] ON THE MIND. 77 
 
 Prime Minister), that his Majesty's disease 
 was seated in his heart, and that an effusion 
 of water into the chest was soon to be ex- 
 pected. It was not, however, until the lat- 
 ter end of May — when his Majesty was so 
 discouraged by repeated attacks in the em- 
 barrassment in his breathing, as to desire me 
 to explain to him the nature of his complaint, 
 and to give him my candid opinion of its 
 probable termination — that the opportunity 
 occurred of acknowledging to his Majesty 
 the extent of my fears for his safety. 
 
 This communication was not necessary to 
 suggest to the King the propriety of reli- 
 gious offices, for his Majesty had used them 
 daily. But it determined him, perhaps, to 
 appoint an early day to receive the Sacra- 
 ment. He did receive it with every appear- 
 ance of the most fervent piety and devotion, 
 and acknowledged to me repeatedly after-
 
 78 influencj: of disease [Ess. v. 
 
 wards, that it had given him great consola- 
 tion — true comfort. 
 
 After this, when ' he had set his house in 
 order,' I thought myself at liberty to inter- 
 pret every new symptom as it arose in as 
 favourable a light as I could, for his Ma- 
 jesty's satisfaction ; and we were enabled 
 thereby to rally his spirits in the intervals 
 of his frightful attacks, to maintain his con- 
 fidence in his medical resources, and to spare 
 him the pain of contemplating approaching 
 death, until a few minutes before his Ma- 
 jesty expired. 
 
 Lord Bacon*, one of the wisest men who 
 has lived, encourages physicians to make it 
 a part of their art to smooth the bed of death, 
 and to render the departure from life easy, 
 placid, and gentle. 
 
 This doctrine, so accordant with the best 
 
 * See chap, ii., lib. 4, ' De Augmentis Scientiarum.
 
 Ess. v.] OX THE MIND. 79 
 
 principles of our nature, commended not 
 only by the wisdom of this consummate 
 philosopher, but also by the experience of 
 one of the most judicious and conscientious 
 physicians of modern times, the late Dr. He- 
 berden, was practised with such happy suc- 
 cess in the case of our late lamented sove- 
 reign, that at the close of his painful disease 
 ' non tam mori videretur (as was said of a 
 Roman Emperor) quam dulci et alto sopore 
 excipi.'
 
 ESSAY VI. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 KAY202 OF ARETiEUS. 
 (the brain fever.) 
 
 I HAVE always considered the description of 
 the Kao(rog, or burning fever of Hippocrates, 
 known bv us under the name of the brain 
 fever, given by Aretaeus, one of the most 
 interesting medical details which have come 
 down to us from antiquity. The beauty of 
 the language (Ionic Greek), but little infe- 
 rior to that of the Father of History, is 
 striking, and the truth of the picture to 
 nature most correct, ns I have had occasion 
 to verify it in several instances in the course 
 of my experience. 
 
 I do not ask your particular attention to 
 the account of the disease in its first stage ; 
 
 G
 
 82 0\ THE KAT202 [Ess. VI. 
 
 tor the symptoms described are such as pre- 
 sent themselves in the early stages of most 
 fevers, accompanied with inflammation of 
 some important organ ; but I would point 
 out to your especial notice tliose expressions 
 which describe the delirium under which 
 the patient labours in a more advanced pro- 
 gress of the malady, and the termination 
 of that delirium in a syncope, followed by 
 cold sweats and a loosening of all the bonds 
 by which being is held together in the hu- 
 man frame. 
 
 The author states that the first effect of 
 the subsidence of the violent excitement is, 
 that the patient's mind becomes clear, that 
 all his sensations are now exquisitely keen ; 
 that he is the first person to discover that 
 he is about to die, and announces this to his 
 attendants; that he seems to hold converse 
 with the spirits of those who have departed 
 before him, as if they stood in his presence ;
 
 Ess. VI.] OF ARETii:US. 83 
 
 and that his soul acquires a prophetic 
 power. 
 
 The author, with all the appearance of 
 being himself convinced that this power has 
 really been acquired by the patient in the 
 last hoars of his life, remarks that the by- 
 standers fancy him to be rambling and talk- 
 ing nonsense, but that they are afterwards 
 astounded at the coming to pass of the 
 events which had been predicted, rrj ciTro^acrsi 
 Se TcSv siprifJLSVcov Qa)uiJL(x(:^s(ri MvQpayTroi. In- 
 deed he attempts to account for it by sup- 
 posing that the soul, whilst ' shuffling off 
 this mortal coil,' whilst disengaging itself 
 from the incumbrances of the body, becomes 
 purer, more essential, entirely spiritual, as 
 if it had already commenced its new exist- 
 ence. 
 
 I will not stop here to comment upon this 
 alleged peculiarity which patients under the 
 brain fever arc said by Aretseus to manifest, 
 
 G2
 
 84 ON THE KAT20S [Ess. VI. 
 
 tliough I shall recur to it hereafter ; but I 
 will lay before you a case of this disease, 
 the symptoms and progress of which, as 
 they passed under my own immediate obser- 
 vation, justify me in bearing testimony to 
 the general truth of that author's description 
 of the malady. 
 
 A young gentleman, twenty-four years 
 of age, who had been using mercury very 
 largely, caught cold, and became seriously 
 ill with fever. His head appeared to be 
 affected on the fifth day, and on the seventh, 
 when I was first called into consultation 
 with another physician who had attended 
 him with great care and judgment from the 
 commencement of his illness, we found him 
 in the highest possible state of excitement. 
 He was stark naked, standing upright in 
 bed, his eyes flashing fire, exquisitely alive 
 to every movement about him, and so iras- 
 cible as not to be approached without in-
 
 Ess. VI.] OF ARET.r.US. So 
 
 creasing his irritation to a degree of fury. 
 He was put under coercion, and amongst 
 other expedients, emetic tartar was ordered 
 to be administered to him, in doses of a 
 grain each time, at proper intervals. 
 
 On the eleventh day of his disease I was 
 informed by my colleague, when we met, 
 and by the attendants, that he was become 
 quite calm, and seemed much better. It 
 was remarked, indeed, that he had said, 
 repeatedly, that he should die; that under 
 this conviction he had talked with great 
 composure of his affairs ; that he had men- 
 tioned several debts which he had con- 
 tracted, and made provision for their pay- 
 ment ; that he had dictated messages to his 
 mother, who was abroad, expressive of his 
 affection, and had talked much of a sister 
 who had died the year before, and whom, 
 he said, he knew he was about to follow 
 immediately. To my questions, whether he
 
 86 ON THE KAT202 [Ess. VI. 
 
 had slept previously to this state of quietude, 
 and whether his pulse had come down, it 
 was answered — No ; he had not slept, and 
 his pulse was quicker than ever. Then it 
 was evident that this specious improvement 
 was unreal, that the clearing up of his mind 
 was a mortal sign, ' a lightening before 
 death,' and that he would die forthwith. On 
 entering his room, he did not notice us ; 
 his eyes were fixed on vacancy, he was oc- 
 cupied entirely within himself, and all that 
 we could gather from his words was some 
 indistinct mention of his sister. His hands 
 were cold, and his pulse immeasurably 
 quick, — he died that night. 
 
 The case of the gentleman who was sub- 
 jected to Shakspeare's test of sanity, and 
 desired to re-word his will, as I related to 
 you last year_, also exhibited some of the 
 strongest features of the Kauo-o^ ; for the 
 recovery of his reason, so far as he did
 
 Ess. VI.] OF AUET.tUS. 87 
 
 recover it, took place when, after a month 
 passed under violent excitement, he was 
 exhausted ; when his system, in Aretaeus's 
 words, had thrown off many of its impu- 
 rities, and the soul, left naked, was free to 
 exercise such energies as it still possessed ; 
 when he became fully sensible of the ap- 
 proach of death ; and when the act which 
 he desired so earnestly to perform was a 
 prospective one, and in contemplation of 
 his immediate departure, which took place, 
 in fact, very soon after. But this was a 
 chronic case. The alienation of mind had 
 endured not days only, but weeks. It 
 was an hereditary distemper, connected pro- 
 bably with some disorganization of the 
 brain. It subsided when the bodily powers 
 were spent, and ' life's fitful fever ' could 
 be sustained no longer. It was the differ- 
 ence between delirium and insanity, the 
 longer or shorter duration of the malady.
 
 88 ON THE KAYi02 [Ess. VI. 
 
 with the accompaniment or absence of fever, 
 constituting the distinction. 
 
 This difference has been drawn so elo- 
 quently by the late Lord Erskine, in his 
 speech in defence of James Hatfield, who 
 was indicted capitally for shooting at the 
 King, that I must take the liberty of tran- 
 scribing two or three of his sentences. He 
 remarked, that ' in some cases, perhaps in 
 ' several, the human mind is stormed in its 
 ' citadel, and laid prostrate under the stroke 
 ' of frenzy. These unhappy sufferers, how- 
 ' ever, are not considered by physicians as 
 ' maniacs, but to be in a state of delirium 
 ' from fever. There, indeed, all the ideas 
 ' are overwhelmed, for reason is not only 
 * disturbed, but wholly driven from her seat. 
 ' In others, reason is not driven from her seat, 
 ' but distraction sits down upon it along 
 ' with her, holds her trembling upon it, and 
 ' frightens her from her propriety."
 
 Ess. VI.] OF AUET.^US. 89 
 
 But to return to Aretaeus, and to devote 
 a few moments to the consideration of that 
 prophetic power which the author attributes 
 to patients under the brain fever in the last 
 hours of their lives. 
 
 The expressions yvcufxr] [xavriTcrj, TrgoXeyoutr* 
 ra auQig ecro/xsi/a, and further y^^v^i ryj xj^uyy)^ 
 yiyvovrai fxavrisg arqejcssg, are certainly very 
 strong ; and if they must be interpreted 
 not figuratively, but literally, I should con- 
 jecture that the author has associated in 
 his mind (what the neighbourhood of the 
 Temple of Delphi, and the poor unenlight- 
 ened religion of his time might have sug- 
 gested) these symptoms of the brain fever 
 with, the practices of the Pythian Priestess 
 at the oracle, who did not pronounce her 
 prophetic dicta until after she had exhibited 
 the contortions and frantic demeanour of a 
 maniac, as if a previous turmoil of the brain 
 was requisite to render her capable of vati- 
 cination.
 
 90 ON THE KATSOS [Ess. VI. 
 
 To me, I own, it does not seem necessary 
 to ascribe to persons under such circum- 
 stances a supernatural power. We have all 
 observed the mind clear up in an extraor- 
 dinary manner in the last hours of life, when 
 terminated even in the ordinary course of 
 nature ; but certainly still more remarkably 
 when it has been cut short by disease, which 
 had affected, for a time, the intellectual fa- 
 culties. We have seen it become capable 
 of exercising a subtle judgment, when the 
 passions which had been accustomed to bias 
 and embarrass its decisions whilst they ex- 
 isted, were extinguished at the approach of 
 death; when the inferences which wisdom 
 had drawn from experience of the former 
 behaviour of men were now made available 
 to a correct estimate of their future conduct, 
 in the sense of Milton's lines : 
 
 ' When old experience does attain 
 ' To something like prophetic strain.' 
 
 An illustration of this argument may be
 
 Ess. VI.] OF AKEI\i:US. 91 
 
 read in the beautiful valedictory address of 
 the elder Cyrus to his two sons and his 
 friends assembled round his death-bed to 
 receive his last instructions. The speech, 
 full of good sense, of truth, and of practical 
 wisdom, is not less worthy of the favourite 
 disciple of Socrates, who records it, than of 
 the Great King, who having been predicted 
 by name, some centuries before he existed, 
 as the instrument hereafter to accomplish 
 the will of Providence, imparted these re- 
 sults of his experience at the close of his 
 illustrious life. 
 
 The speech begins, JJai^eg sixoi xai ttuvtss 
 oi Trapovrsg <ptXot ! sfxoi [xsv re ^is to rsKog 
 tjStj TTUpSG-riV, &c.* 
 
 Nevertheless, that a prophetic power did 
 attend man's last hour generally, was a no- 
 tion entertained of old, and has been trans- 
 
 * See Xenopuon's Kv^oratSux.
 
 92 ON THE KAT202 [Ess. VI. 
 
 mitted down to us from the earliest records 
 of mankind. We read in the Pentateuch, 
 that ' when Jacob had made an end of com- 
 manding his sons,' (or^ in other words not 
 less faithful to the original, nor to the ver- 
 sion of the Septuagint, * when Jacob had 
 finished imparting his solemn injunctions to 
 his sons,') ' he drew up his feet into the bed, 
 and yielded up the ghost.' Now with these 
 solemn injunctions were mixed up much 
 prophetic matter, many predictions of their 
 future fate and fortunes : as for instance, — 
 ' the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
 ' nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until 
 ' Shiloh come, and to him shall the gather- 
 ' ing of the people be.' 
 
 And though the account here given by 
 Moses is, as I believe it to be, in the lan- 
 guage of inspiration, and must not, there- 
 fore, be humiliated by being compared even 
 with this sublime account of an important
 
 Ess. VI.] OF ARET.1=:US. 93 
 
 disease, given by a physician for the infor- 
 mation of his profession, and the good of 
 mankind ; yet we must allow it to be re- 
 markable, that the Almighty should please 
 to choose the dying hour of the Patriarch 
 in which to inspire him with a fore-know- 
 ledge of his gracious purpose, to send the 
 Messiah into the world for the redemption 
 of mankind : nor will it seem extravagant 
 to suppose that this most interesting pre- 
 diction, at the close of Jacob's life, might 
 be the very foundation on which the popular 
 notion (that dying persons were gifted with 
 the power of prophecy, a notion which pre- 
 vailed through so many successive ages 
 afterwards) was built. The pride of human 
 nature easily disposes it to appropriate to 
 itself extraordinary power ; and that which 
 was peculiarly vouchsafed to the sanctity 
 of the Patriarch and Prophets of God may
 
 94 ON THE KATSOS [Ess. VI. 
 
 have been assumed to be the privilege of 
 mankind universally in the hour of death. 
 
 That the fame of the Patriarch's prophecy 
 and those of Isaiah, at a much later period, 
 was not confined to the limits of the country 
 in which they were first promulgated, we 
 are very sure ; that they were extended in 
 process of time, by the venerated authority 
 of the Sibylline leaves, (which we have good 
 reason to believe were a collection of pro- 
 phecies,) over the whole extent of the Roman 
 empire, is probable, and that their fulfil- 
 ment was expected the more intensely as 
 the time of their accomplishment drew near, 
 we may assume, as a fair inference, from 
 the PoUio of Virgil, who makes use of the 
 very same beautiful imagery in depicting 
 the advantages to follow the expected birth 
 of his august Personage, — as Isaiah had em- 
 ployed to describe the happy consequences
 
 Kss. VI.] OF ARET.'i:US. 95 
 
 of the advent of the Messenger of mercy to 
 mankind. 
 
 What wonder then if the philosophers, 
 both Grecian and Roman, if the poets (who 
 may be considered as historians of popular 
 notions) concurred in transmitting down 
 this accredited opinion ! Cicero, a most 
 accomplished philosopher as well as orator, 
 himself an augur too, and therefore pro- 
 bably well acquainted with the contents of 
 the Sibylline leaves, (for they were com- 
 mitted to the safe custody of the college of 
 Augurs,) in his first book, ' De Divinatione,' 
 gives a story of the prediction of the death 
 of Alexander the Great, by an Indian about 
 to die on the funeral pile. His words are, 
 * Est profecto quiddam etiam in barbaris 
 ' gentibus prsesentiens atque divinans ; si- 
 ' quidem ad mortem proficiscens Calanus 
 ' Indus, cum adscenderet in rogum ardentem, 
 ' O prseclarum decessum, inquit, e vita !
 
 96 ON THE KAT202 [Ess. VI. 
 
 ' cum ut Herculi contigit, mortali corpore 
 
 * cremato, in lucem animus excesserit! 
 
 * Cumque Alexander eum rogaret si quid 
 ' velletutdiceret; Optime, inquit; propediem 
 
 * te videbo. Quod ita contigit ; nam Baby- 
 ' lone, paucis post diebus, Alexander est 
 ' mortuus.' 
 
 As to the Poets, Homer transmits it, 
 Sophocles adopts it, Virgil copies Homer, 
 and our own Shakspeare records it in vari- 
 ous passages. 
 
 In the sixteenth book of the Iliad, Patro- 
 clus prophesies the death of Hector. In 
 the twenty-second, Hector, in his dying 
 moments, prophesies the death of Achilles, 
 by the hand of Paris, at the Scaean gate, in 
 these words : 
 
 ^^CLsicj vvv ; ixriToi tI Sswv (/.wifxa ysywixaci 
 H/xaTi Tw 0T£ xev (7g Tlapif, xai <I>o»/3or AttoXXcuv 
 
 Sophocles, in the CEdipus Coloneus, re-
 
 Ess. VI.] OF ARET.EUS. 97 
 
 presents (Edipus, as lie is walking to the 
 spot where he is to die, foretelling to Theseus 
 the prosperity of Athens, and of his family. 
 
 Eyw ^t^x^cj, rex-vov Kiysus, cc aoi 
 Y'npcos aCkvTtoL T-n^E KsiasTxi ttoXej. 
 
 I long to give the messenger's awful ac- 
 count of the extinction and disappearance 
 of (Edipus immediately afterwards, which 
 Longinus enumerates amongst his instances 
 of the sublime, but I dare not trespass 
 longer on your time. 
 
 Virgil follows Homer in describing Orodes 
 in the tenth book of the ^Eneid, prophesy- 
 ing the death of Mezentius, by whom he 
 had just been mortally wounded : 
 
 jacet altus Orodes. 
 
 Conclamant socii, laetum pseana secuti. 
 Ille autem expirans : Non me, quicunque es, inuU6 
 Victor, nee longum laetabere : te quoque fata 
 Prospectant paria, atque eadeni mox arva tenebunt. 
 
 And Shakspeare adopts it in various 
 places, as in Henry IV., where Hotspur, 
 
 H
 
 98 ox THE KATSOS OF ARET.T.US. [Kss. VI. 
 
 mortally wounded and about to die imme- 
 diately, says, ' Now could I prophesy — but 
 that the icy hand of death,' &c. 
 
 And again, in Richard 11., where the 
 dying John of Gaunt exclaims, ' Methinks 
 I am a prophet new inspired !' 
 
 But I have extended this speculative part 
 of my paper to too great a length ; not that 
 I dread the reproach of those amongst you 
 who delight to mix the elegancies of litera- 
 ture with the severer studies of your pro- 
 fession ; nor do I fear the disapprobation of 
 such as are intent only upon acquiring a 
 knowledge of physic. They will surely 
 thank me for having laid before them so 
 faithful, so beautiful an historian of disease 
 ns Aretceus.
 
 99 
 
 ESSAY VII. 
 
 TREATMENT OF GOUT. 
 
 So much has been written on the subject 
 which I lay before you this evening-, that I 
 feel as if some apology were necessary for 
 taking up your time with remarks upon the 
 Gout. But I rest assured, that you will 
 receive in good part the result of my long- 
 experience in the treatment of that disease ; 
 and that, if I state to you that there is no 
 malady to which I am called upon to ad- 
 minister, that I prescribe for with so much 
 confidence in the resources of our art, as for 
 Gout, formerly the opprobrium medicorum, 
 you will give me willingly a few moments 
 of your attention. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 ON THE TREATMENT [Ess. VII. 
 
 I will not dwell upon the various seats of 
 Gout in the human frame. For though the 
 terms Arthritis and Podagra would seem 
 to limit the malady to the feet and the 
 joints, we have seen it in almost every part 
 of the human system. There are those who 
 believe that they have observed it in the eye. 
 I have certainly seen it in the kidney, in the 
 urethra and prostate gland, and in the ton- 
 sils. One of our esteemed colleagues has 
 suffered it there ; and I remember an emi- 
 nent physician in the country so harassed 
 by it, and so disappointed by finding no 
 effect from the most approved remedies for 
 the Angina Tonsillaris, that at length he 
 plunged a lancet into it ; if, peradventure, 
 there might be some deep-seated suppura- 
 tion there, to which he should give an exit. 
 No matter followed ; but in a few minutes 
 the Gout attacked the ball of his great toe. 
 The Angina was soon forgotten, and the new
 
 Ess. VII.] OF GOUT. lOl 
 
 disease ran its course with all its accustomed 
 severity. 
 
 With regard to the remedies for Gout, 
 my dependence is placed upon the Colchi- 
 cum. Under the common circumstances of 
 an attack of Gout in the extremities, 1 do 
 not use it immediately, but wait a day or 
 two, until the malady shall have fixed itself. 
 I then direct the wine of the root, prepared 
 according to the directions of the Pharma- 
 copoeia; and I do not hesitate to declare, 
 that I have not known a single instance of 
 any untoward effect from it. It often cures 
 the disease without any manifest increase of 
 any of the excretions. Sometimes it pro- 
 duces perspiration, and sometimes it acts as 
 a diuretic — the two objects aimed at gene- 
 rally by a physician in the use of our com- 
 mon resources in the treatment of this 
 disease ; but so far is it from being prone to 
 purge the body violently, as the Eau M^di-
 
 102 ON THE TREATMENT [Ess. VII. 
 
 cinale often did, that I find it necessary, in 
 most cases, to combine a small portion of 
 tlie Sulphate of Magnesia with the vAne, in 
 the draught in which I administer it. The 
 formula which I have found most useful is 
 a Saline draught with Camphor mixture, a 
 drachm of Syrup of White Poppies, and 
 from 35 to 45 minims, not more, of the 
 wine of the Root of Colchicum, at bed-time ; 
 to be repeated in the morning with 25 drops 
 only of the wine, and half a drachm of the 
 Syrup of Poppies ; and in this dose a 
 drachm of the Sulphate of Magnesia. It 
 is necessary to repeat these draughts for 
 three or four successive nights and morn- 
 ings, and to follow its use by a piil con- 
 taining three grains of an acetous extract of 
 the Colchicum, (made by evaporating an in- 
 fusion of the root in vinegar,) and one or two 
 grains of the Pulv. Ipecac. Comp., and the 
 same quantity of the Extractum Colocyn-
 
 Kss. VII.] OF GO IT. \03 
 
 thidis Comp., and to terminate the whole by 
 a mild purgative. 
 
 It has been objected to the Colchicum 
 that it produces a temporary good effect 
 only, and that the Gout is apt to recur when 
 treated with this medicine after a shorter 
 interval than usual. Be it so for argument's 
 sake — yet surely the weight of three or four 
 attacks of the disease, of three or four days' 
 continuance each, not more, is hardly to be 
 compared with the pressure of a six weeks' 
 painful confinement in the spring, and one 
 of equal duration at the latter end of the 
 year, as was the case before the value of 
 this remedy was known ; the paroxysms, 
 moreover, terminating often by distortion 
 and disfigurement of the joints by chalk 
 stones ; an evil which is now prevented 
 almost universally by that control which 
 the Colchicum puts upon the inflammatory 
 stage of a fit of Gout. But my experience
 
 104 ON THE TREATMENT [Ess. VII 
 
 will not admit it to be true that the disease 
 returns more quickly. On the contrary, 
 when the liquid preparation has been fol- 
 lowed by the acetous extract, I think I am 
 fully justified in asserting that the disease is 
 removed for as long an interval as usually 
 intervened between the fits, when left, as it 
 was left formerly, to patience and flannel. 
 
 I am not rash and inconsiderate enough 
 to recommend this mode of treatment to you 
 as a specific system for managing the Gout 
 in all its forms, and under all the circum- 
 stances of different constitutions^ which may 
 present themselves to you. The formula 
 will require to be varied occasionally, and 
 it may be proper in many instances of an 
 enervated state of the frame to reinvigorate 
 it by a light preparation of the Peruvian 
 Bark, after the Colchicum has done its 
 duty — or, in other instances, to give two or 
 three doses of the Pil. Hydrargyri at bed-
 
 Ess. VII.] OF GOUT. 105 
 
 time every night, in order to recall the bile 
 into its proper channels, if the Colchieum 
 or the Sedative with which it has been com- 
 bined shall have produced ash-coloured 
 evacuations by the bowels, denoting an ob- 
 struction of the bile. 
 
 Of all the preparations of this valuable 
 medicine I prefer the infusion of the root in 
 Sherry wine. A preparation has been made, 
 and is in frequent use, in the manner of an 
 infusion of the seeds in preference to the 
 root, but this has appeared to me to be apt 
 to create an insupportable nausea ; such an 
 one as I have seen follow Wilson's Tincture 
 for the Gout, and the Eau Medicinale. 
 When such an effect has once followed, it is 
 in vain that you request the patient to have 
 recourse to it again. He will answer you, 
 that he would rather endure his disease in 
 all its severity than subject himself to the 
 misery of such a remedy. This answer I
 
 106 ox THE TREATMENT [Kss. VII. 
 
 have heard given to a proposal to administer 
 the Digitalis, when it had once affected the 
 stomach in this manner — even when it had 
 in one patient evacuated water from the 
 chest in three successive attacks of Hydro- 
 thorax ; and in another, controlled a danger- 
 ous affection of the heart for several years. 
 No — these patients both declared that they 
 would rather die than swallow one dose of 
 Digitalis more. 
 
 Before I dismiss the subject of Colchicum, 
 I must add that the use of this vegetable 
 in Gout is by no means jiew ; for it is re- 
 commended by Alexander of Tralles, a city 
 of Lydia, in the sixth century, as a remedy 
 for this disease, not under the name of Col- 
 chicum, indeed, but of Hermodactyls. Now 
 the Hermodactyls and the roots of Col- 
 chicum are the same, as you will observe 
 by a comparison of the specimens on the 
 table. Being anxious to obtain some Her-
 
 Kbs. VII.] OF GOUT. 107 
 
 modactyls, I availed myself of the good 
 offices of one of the king's messengers, and 
 purchased those before you in the market at 
 Constantinople. They appear to be the 
 same vegetable root as Sir G. Blane has 
 stated on the authority of Sir Joseph Banks : 
 though our estimable colleague, Dr. J, A. 
 Wilson, is of opinion that there is a differ- 
 ence between them. I have not yet infused 
 them in vv^ine, but intend to do so immedi- 
 ately, and to try their efficacy upon Gout in 
 the same manner as I have prescribed the 
 Colchicum. 
 
 But it is not enough to state what I have 
 found the most easy and effectual method of 
 treating a fit of the Gout, unless at the same 
 time I lay before you the manner by which 
 I attempt to prevent an attack. 
 
 As to medicine, I have had, incomparably, 
 the most satisfaction in giving a few grains 
 of Rhubarb and double the quantity of the
 
 108 ON THE TREATMENT [Ess. VII. 
 
 Carbonate of Magnesia every day, either at 
 bed-time or early in the morning ; or, under 
 evident weakness of the powers of digestion, 
 half an ounce of the compound Tincture of 
 Rhubarb with fifteen grains of the Carbon- 
 ate of Potash, in some light bitter infusion, 
 daily, before the principal meal. The 
 coarser purgatives should be carefully 
 avoided ; as I have often known a strong 
 dose of physic, as well as a bleeding, ag- 
 gravate a mere slight indication of Gout 
 into a severe decided fit. 
 
 But the management of himself and of 
 his habits, on the part of the patient, is of 
 more importance in keeping off this malady 
 than medicine. His diet must be restricted, 
 and he must dine at an earlier hour than is 
 the custom at present amongst the higher 
 ranks of society ; his exercise must be 
 gentle, but regular ; his mind must be kept 
 free from solicitude and care ; he must
 
 Ess, VII.] OF GOUT. 109 
 
 avoid intense study*, and he must be chaste. 
 The word which Pliny uses to express this 
 item of precaution is a remarkable one, and, 
 as far as I remember at this moment, pecu- 
 liar to himself — it is sanctitas. He remarks 
 of a friend of his, a martyr to the Gout, that 
 ' Pedum dolorem fregit abstinentia, et sanc- 
 titate.' This point of conduct may have 
 been thought important in the eyes of the 
 Roman, in consequence of what Hippocra- 
 tes has remarked in the 30th Aphorism of 
 the 6th Section, relative to the non-appear- 
 ance of Gout before puberty, IlaT^ oo 
 VToZaypicc, Ts^ too a(p^o8<o"ja<r/x,ou, especially 
 as his own Celsus had adopted and recorded 
 the same opinion. Ea raro vel castrates, 
 vel pueros ante foeminae coitum tentat. 
 Be this as it may, I venture to say that 
 
 * Sydenham, a great sufferer by the Gout, remarks, 
 ' Quoties me ad haec studia recipiebara, toties et Podagra 
 recurrebat.'
 
 110 ON THE TREATMENT OF GOUT. [Kss. VII. 
 
 the caution is worth observing* ; for nothing- 
 enervates the system so much as this indul- 
 gence, especially in excess : and an ener- 
 vated state of the body is that which renders 
 it most assailable by Gout. 
 
 I have only to add, that I have seen the 
 best possible effect, in a great many in- 
 stances, from the use of the waters of Aix 
 la Chapelle, in restoring their healthy tone 
 to the knees and ankles, enfeebled or stif- 
 fened by repeated fits of the Gout.
 
 Ill 
 
 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. 
 
 The Phlegmasia Dolens, that white elastic 
 swelling, generally of one, very rarely of 
 both the lower limbs, attended with great 
 pain and soreness, is supposed to be peculiar 
 to female nature, indeed to women after 
 lying in, and was formerly considered and 
 miscalled a ' Depot du lait.' 
 
 But a .more accurate pathology has ex- 
 ploded the notion of its being a deposit of 
 milk, and has assigned causes for the disease, 
 which do not preclude the other sex from a 
 liability to it. Indeed a most respectable 
 general practitioner has expressed such a 
 belief, and I am much mistaken if I have
 
 112 PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. [Ess. VIII. 
 
 not seen it in three instances, within the last 
 few yearSj in men ; and if the suggestions of 
 some intelligent practical writers, who have 
 attributed the disease to an inflammation of 
 the veins of the pelvis be correct, there is no 
 reason why men should not occasionally con- 
 tract the malady, though it will be easily 
 admitted that the long-continued pressure of 
 the pregnant uterus on the iliac veins, and 
 the violent change which that part of the 
 female system undergoes by parturition, must 
 render women more frequently the subjects 
 of this complaint. 
 
 Perhaps you will allow me to give two of 
 these cases in some detail ; and I beg you 
 to bear in mind the notion of an inflamma- 
 tion of the veins of the pelvis as the origin 
 of the painful affection ; because I think 
 their history serves much to confirm the cor- 
 rectness and truth of this notion. 
 
 The late Earl of L. suffered with this
 
 Kss. VIII.] PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. 113 
 
 disease many years before his death, and 
 bore marks of it to the last^ in a swelling of 
 the left leg and thigh, and in the varicose 
 state of the veins from the ankle to the groin. 
 He was attended by the late Dr. Pemberton 
 in the first instance, and the symptoms were 
 palliated from time to time; but he remained 
 subject to repeated attacks of the same pain- 
 ful malady ; and I am persuaded that the 
 obstruction to the circulation of the blood, 
 occasioned by the original inflammation, 
 gave rise at length to that disease of the 
 brain which incapacitated him for the busi- 
 ness of his great office, and ultimately de- 
 prived him of life. 
 
 When I first attended him, some three 
 years before his death, I found him subject 
 to temporary congestions in the liver, which 
 were relieved by small repeated doses of 
 calomel, followed by purgative draughts 
 containing neutral salts. But there was 
 
 I
 
 114 PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. [Ess.VlIl. 
 
 something extraordinary in his pulse which 
 attracted my particular attention. It was 
 most unusually slow, beating only forty-four 
 pulsations in a minute, whereas I learnt that 
 the original habit of it was to give seventy- 
 four strokes in that space of time. This 
 was ingeniously conjectured by Sir Astley 
 Cooper, who had attended him with Dr. Pem- 
 berton, and had witnessed repeated attacks 
 of the inflammation of the veins, to be attri- 
 butable to an obliteration of the external 
 iliac vein of the side affected ; by which the 
 blood was returned to the heart more slowly, 
 and the vital organ was not stimulated thereby 
 to contract itself till after longer intervals 
 than had been its custom. The good reason 
 and propriety of this conjecture was abun- 
 dantly confirmed by examination of Lord 
 L.'s body after death, when the left external 
 iliac vein was found to be impervious for 
 several inches, and, what is remarkable, the
 
 Kss.VIIl.] PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. 1 l/) 
 
 corresponding vein on the right side was 
 
 ossified. 
 
 It is not improbable that the stroke of 
 apoplexy which brought his life into immi- 
 nent hazard when it occurred, and which 
 destroyed his mental powers for the whole 
 year during which he survived it, was refer- 
 able to the same obstruction to the return of 
 the blood towards the heart from the lower 
 extremities ; nor was it unlikely that a large 
 accumulation of blood in the sinuses of the 
 brain (in consequence of an impediment to its 
 free ingress from the vena cava descendens, 
 into the right auricle, caused by the heart's 
 preternatural delay in contracting) should 
 occasion an effusion of serum into the brain. 
 This was the case, in fact ; and at least four 
 ounces of lymph were deposited in its sub- 
 stance, in an unnatural cavity extending 
 from the roof of the ventricle to the pia 
 maternal covering of it. Lord L., some time 
 
 12
 
 116 PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. [Ess. VIII. 
 
 previously to the apoplectic seizure, had 
 complained of an imperfection in his vision, 
 and used to remark that he missed a word 
 or two in every line ; but after the blow was 
 struck, he lost the power of speech almost 
 altogether. Epileptic fits followed, at un- 
 certain intervals, and in one of these he 
 expired. Alas! how fearfully and how won- 
 derfully are we made ! and on what a thread 
 does this proud distinction of man, his rea- 
 son, and his life, depend ! What moment- 
 ous consequences do sometimes follow the 
 slightest derangement of the economy of 
 our curious fabric ! This inflammation of 
 the vein, from whatever cause it arose, (the 
 most probable one was exposure to a cold 
 March wind in a rather thinner dress than 
 usual,) appeared to give way to appropriate 
 remedies, and was not thought of any im- 
 portance beyond the pain and inconvenience 
 which it occasioned at the moment ; but it
 
 Ess, VIII.] PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. 117 
 
 was destined to produce a tragedy, some 
 time after, of unusual interest and distress ; 
 — Lord L. married subsequently to the first 
 attack of the disease, and was directing the 
 affairs of this great nation at the height 
 of its glory, when the matured consequences 
 of this disturbance of the circulation, by a 
 common cold, deprived him of his intellect 
 and of his life. 
 
 Another case of this disease presented 
 itself to me in the person of an officer of 
 high military reputation, who fell ill under 
 symptoms of an inflammation of his chest. 
 He had already been bled, and had taken 
 physic when I saw him, and was complain- 
 ing of acute pain in the region of the liver. 
 This was met by a further loss of blood by 
 cupping the right side ; soon after which a 
 deep-seated pain attacked him in the left 
 groin ; here sixteen leeches were applied, 
 and the part was fomented. On the follow-
 
 118 PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. [Ess. VIII. 
 
 ing day^ the thigh and leg were considerably 
 swollen ; some knots could be felt in the 
 course of the veins, and the lymphatics of 
 the surface manifested themselves in red 
 streaks. Here, again, the inflammation and 
 soreness were treated by more leeches, and 
 cold lotions, and a necessity for their repe- 
 tition occurred three several times more on 
 account of the pain — once again above the 
 knee, twice in the leg. 
 
 At length the fire was extinguished, but 
 the limb has continued swoln, though to a 
 less degree, ever since. However, some 
 baths on the Continent, and a bandage, have 
 reduced the inconvenience so much, that it 
 interferes now but little with the comforts of 
 life. But my patient returned to town, this 
 last autumn_, under considerable anxiety and 
 alarm, on account of a notable intermission 
 which had been discovered in his pulse ; the 
 importance or no importance of which some
 
 Ess. VIII.] PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. 119 
 
 time will be necessary to ascertain ; but this 
 symptom will induce me to look with suspi- 
 cion upon, and to watch with jealous care, 
 any affection of the head, should it arise. 
 
 As to inflammation of the veins, generally, 
 it is not my purpose to discuss this question 
 on the present occasion, nor to enter into a 
 consideration of the various opinions which 
 pathologists have entertained of the nature 
 of the symptoms which arise in that state. 
 We all know that injuries done to veins by 
 accidents are apt to produce a disease which 
 proceeds most rapidly to the destruction of 
 life ; and that this is much less frequently 
 the case where the inflammation has arisen 
 spontaneously. Probably the admission of 
 air into their cavities, as would often be the 
 result of an injury, may make the difference. 
 No ; my object, in this short paper, has been, 
 merely, to assist in doing away the opinion 
 that phlegmasia dolens is peculiar to women;
 
 120 PHLEGMASIA DOLENS. [Ess. VIII. 
 
 and to confirm, as far as these two cases 
 may be thought to confirm it, the later and 
 better philosophy of the disorder. 
 
 I would add, that I think it worth your 
 future attentive consideration, and inquiry, 
 whether the irregular intermittent pulse, so 
 frequently observed in the decline of life, 
 may not be traceable to some past unheeded 
 inflammation in an important vein, and to a 
 consequent impermeability or obliteration of 
 its channel.
 
 121 
 
 ESSAY IX. 
 
 TREATMENT OF INSANITY, PARTICULARLY 
 THE MORAL TREATMENT. 
 
 There is no disease which appeals more 
 forcibly to our best feelings, or which de- 
 serves better the curious attention of the 
 philosopher, and the sympathy of the phi- 
 lanthropist ; no one which requires the best 
 skill of the physician, more than insanity. 
 
 As both the mind and the body of an in- 
 sane patient are involved in one common 
 calamity, the whole man is prostrated, as it 
 were, and becomes an object of terror and of 
 pity to all around him — Of terror, because 
 he acts from impulse, and not from reason ; 
 and may therefore do great and sudden mis- 
 chief to himself, and to others within his
 
 122 THE TREATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 reach — Of pity, because he is cut off from 
 all the comforts of this life, and intercepted 
 in that moral improvement which may be 
 essential to his happiness hereafter. In fact, 
 being in possession of his physical vitality, 
 and in the midst of life, he is, to all intents 
 and purposes, morally dead, so long as his 
 disease continues. 
 
 Of an insane person there is not neces- 
 sarily more than one faculty of the mind 
 affected, — the judgment. His perception 
 may be clear, and his memory unimpaired. 
 Of a patient under delirium, all the povrers 
 of the mind are implicated, and besides re- 
 main unconnected until the delirium cease. 
 
 As the judgment is the faculty involved, 
 an impending attack of insanity generally 
 manifests itself, as might be expected, by 
 indecision — which Mr. Burke says is the 
 natural accomplice of violence ; by suspicion 
 without probable cause, and lastly by delu-
 
 Ess, IX.] OF INSANITV. 123 
 
 sions, assumed notions which have no foun- 
 dation in nature, or in truth. When these 
 delusions shall have taken possession of the 
 mind^ the disease is established ; and a 
 court of inquiry decides most properly, that 
 a person is of unsound mind, of whom testi- 
 mony has been given, that delusions were 
 entertained by him, and that such delusions 
 influenced his conduct. 
 
 I do not intend to confine myself, in my 
 observations on the treatment of insanity, to 
 the use of medicine only ; for though this 
 be highly requisite in the first stage of the 
 disease, and from time to time, throughout 
 its course, yet as the malady advances, the 
 frame accommodates itself to its inconve- 
 niences, and medicine becomes less obvi- 
 ously necessary every day. When the 
 bodily health is plainly disturbed in the 
 commencement, (and it is sure to be so, 
 either as a cause of the insanity, or an im-
 
 124 THE TREAT-MEXT [Ess. IX. 
 
 mediate consequence of it,) the physician 
 will exercise his discernment in finding out 
 the organ principally aggrieved. If the 
 attack shall have been preceded by hypo- 
 chondriasis, (which differs from insanity in 
 not being accompanied with delusions, 
 though its nervous fears are sometimes as 
 gratuitous and ill-founded as the delusions 
 of insanity,) he will direct his expedients to 
 the restorations of the healthy secretions of 
 the stomach and the liver. If long pro- 
 tracted anxiety of mind shall have produced 
 the ill, by depriving the patient of appetite 
 and of rest, he will contrive, by poppy and 
 mandragora, and all the drowsy syrups of 
 the world, if possible, to medicine him again 
 to the indispensable blessing of sleep. 
 
 Or sudden misfortune may have paralysed 
 the mind, as it were ; or eager hopes of 
 wealth, unexpectedly blasted, may have dri- 
 ven reason from her seat ; as in the remark-
 
 Ess. IX.] OF INSANITY. 125 
 
 able instance of Omichund, the Gentoo mer- 
 chant, after the battle of Plassy. It is re- 
 lated of Omichund, that he became instan- 
 taneously speechless, and soon after insane, 
 on being told that his name was not men- 
 tioned in a treaty between Colonel Clive and 
 Meer Jaffier, in which it was to have been 
 stipulated, that he should receive nearly a 
 million of money for his services, in assist- 
 ing to dethrone the Nabob of Bengal.* 
 
 Or, the reverse of this, madness may have 
 been the consequence of the sudden acqui- 
 sition of enormous wealth. For it is re- 
 corded in our annals, that more people went 
 mad in the year 1720, who had become 
 unexpectedly rich by their adventures, than 
 incurred the same sad penalty of their spe- 
 culations, by the loss of all their property. 
 I allude to that year of national infatuation 
 and disaster, when more than the wealth of 
 * See Orme's History of Indostan, vol. ii.
 
 12G THE TREA TxMENT [Flss. IX. 
 
 the world was promised from the South Sea 
 alone. In such cases it will be prudent to 
 inquire whether the brain has not been op- 
 pressed, by its blood-vessels having become 
 suddenly turgid and over-gorged, in conse- 
 quence of the great mental emotion. 
 
 Or has some eruption been hastily re- 
 pelled, or some evacuation heedlessly sup- 
 pressed ; or some strong propensity of the 
 system improvidently thwarted ? These 
 several occasions of insanity will require 
 their appropriate remedies. But your ob- 
 servation and experience will detect the 
 source of wrong wherever it may lay hid, 
 and your skill will administer to it. 
 
 The second stage is a period of excite- 
 ment, and little more can be done in this, 
 than to guard the patient against the possi- 
 bility of hurting himself or others. To rea- 
 son with him, whilst under a paroxysm, is to 
 talk to the winds. Personal restraint must
 
 Ess. IX.] OF INSANITY. 127 
 
 be had recourse to, and I have only to re- 
 mark, that I have seen the time of coercion 
 materially abridged (an object of great im- 
 portance) by the use of tartarised antimony, 
 which controls the violence, and shortens 
 the duration of the paroxysm, and which 
 recommends itself, moreover, by the facility 
 with which it can be administered. 
 
 But it is to the moral treatment in the 
 third stage, that I desire to call your par- 
 ticular attention ; and I must be permitted 
 to premise, in candour, that I doubt whether 
 so much is generally attempted by physi- 
 cians, as might be done with advantage. I 
 admit that the limited remuneration of the 
 superintendents of establishments for the 
 reception of insane persons in humble life 
 does not allow of such pains being taken 
 with each recovering patient, as his symp- 
 toms might profit by ; but to those in more 
 fortunate circumstances, every resource may
 
 128 THE TllKATMEN'J' [Ess. IX. 
 
 and ought to be employed, which can pos- 
 sibly promote a cure. The mind, if I may 
 trust my own experience, is not less instinc- 
 tively disposed than the body to exert itself 
 to throw off disease ; and I think I have 
 seen a marked period when these efforts are 
 to be expected. Indeed it has been col- 
 lected from the records of five hundred cases 
 of insanity, which have recovered, that four 
 hundred and fifty of them manifested deci- 
 ded improvement at the expiration of three 
 months. When the stage of excitement 
 has passed, a calm usually follows, propor- 
 tioned to that excitement, and in this state 
 of comparative composure, the delusions, 
 which the mind had entertained, adhere to 
 it less pertinaciously. The patient himself 
 begins to doubt their reality. His affec- 
 tions, which had been estranged from what 
 he used to hold most dear, seem disposed 
 to return. He becomes less negligent of
 
 Kss. IX J OF INSANITY. J 29 
 
 his person, inquires after his family, and 
 is all anxiety to know what dream he 
 has passed through, and to be told of the 
 storm which lately so convulsed him. Now, 
 if, at this auspicious moment, the inter- 
 course of a discreet friend be permitted, it 
 will cheer the patient's heart, while, by kind- 
 ness and attention, the physician will easily 
 get possession of his returning confidence, 
 and so induce him to unbosom himself of 
 the distempered notions which still continue 
 to haunt him. These, although they be 
 founded in palpable error, the considerate 
 physician will not combat rudely, but will 
 take proper opportunities of hinting his 
 doubts of their reality. He will never de- 
 ceive his patient, but take pains to prevail 
 upon him, whenever they recur, to refer them 
 to his unbiassed and more practised judg- 
 ment ; and to be guided by that, rather than 
 by his own, in estimating the correctness of 
 
 K
 
 130 THE TREATMENT [Ess, IX. 
 
 such opinions. He will act, as it were, upon 
 a system of education, and will aim thereby 
 at confirming the spirits, and strengthening 
 the mind of the convalescent ; and as the 
 discipline employed in youth serves to en- 
 courage and enforce the predominance of 
 reason over the passions, so will discreet 
 converse assist in restoring reason to the seat 
 of which disease had dispossessed her, and 
 in giving her back again her proper sway 
 over wild impulses. He will engage the 
 mind agreeably, by presenting to it new 
 objects, and by recalling former pursuits to 
 their wonted acceptance. Had the patient, 
 before he was ill, any favourite amusement 
 of a harmless nature? Was he fond of 
 music, for instance ? — Music, without exer- 
 cising the attention severely, has the power, 
 however, to fix it: therefore with this 'sola 
 voluptas solamenque mali,' the only gratifi- 
 cation perhaps of which he is capable at this
 
 Kss. IX.] OF INSANITY. 131 
 
 period of his mental darkness, he may be 
 indulged immediately. Of the solace of 
 music^ nay more, of its influence upon 
 melancholy, I need not look for evidence in 
 the universal testimony of antiquity, nor 
 remind such an audience of its recorded 
 effect upon the gloomy distemper of the 
 perverse mind of Saul. I myself have wit- 
 nessed its power to mitigate the sadness of 
 seclusion, in a case where my loyalty as a 
 good subject, and my best feelings as a 
 man, were more than usually interested in 
 the restoration of my patient ; and I also 
 remember its salutary operation in the case 
 of a gentleman in Yorkshire many years ago, 
 who was first stupified, and afterwards be- 
 came insane upon the sudden loss of all his 
 property. This gentleman could hardly be 
 said to live — he merely vegetated, for he 
 was motionless until pushed, an.d did not 
 speak to, nor notice anybody in the house, 
 
 K 2
 
 132 THE TREATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 for nearly four months. The first indication 
 of a return of any sense appeared in his 
 attention to music played in the street. 
 This was observed, the second time he 
 heard it, to have a more decided force in 
 arousing him from his lethargy ; and induced 
 by this good omen, the sagacious humanity 
 of his superintendent offered him a violin. 
 He seized it eagerly, and amused himself 
 with it constantly. After six weeks, hearing 
 the rest of the patients of the house pass by 
 his door to their common room, he accosted 
 them, ' Good morning to you all, gentle- 
 men ; I am quite well, and desire I may 
 accompany you.' In two months more, he 
 was dismissed cured. 
 
 Or had the patient, before he became 
 insane, a predilection for any particular 
 studies? Would he take the counsel of 
 Lord Bacon,* and entertain such as fill the 
 
 * See Lord Bacon's Essays, Civil and Moral,
 
 Ess. IX. ] OF IXSAMTV. J 33 
 
 mind with splendid and illustrious objects, 
 as histories, fables, and contemplations of 
 nature? Or did he prefer mathematics, and 
 can he now be prevailed upon to enter upon 
 a course of such reading? One of the Gre- 
 cian philosophers* has called mathematical 
 demonstrations the purgatives of the soul, 
 as being the most proper means to cleanse 
 it from errors, and give it a relish for truth. 
 Certainly nothing more entirely bars the 
 intrusion of ' thick-coming fancies,' by oc- 
 cupying the whole mind, than mathematical 
 studies ; and it is within my own knowledge, 
 and that, no doubt, of many of you, that the 
 elder Doctor A , whilst he was prac- 
 tising physic with great reputation in the 
 country, became deranged, and lived mise- 
 rably under a delusion that he had been 
 reduced to beggary. After a separation from 
 his family of some months, he was advised to 
 
 Plato.
 
 134 THE TREATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 resume the study of Euclid, to which he had 
 occasionally dropped hints of his partiality. 
 He did resume it with great satisfaction to 
 himself, and with the happiest effect, and re- 
 covered at length so entirely, as to be able 
 to recommence business in London, and to 
 continue to practise physic until his death. 
 
 Another most efficient resource, if it can be 
 introduced safely, is the study of the Holy 
 Scriptures. But this requires great caution 
 and consideration, ere it be admitted ; nor 
 can it be recommended in any case where 
 the disease, as often happens, has connected 
 itself with religious speculations in the first 
 instance. Enthusiasm is so apt to arise from 
 the conceits of a warm, or overweening 
 brain, (to use the language of Mr. Locke,) 
 that unless the physician feel assured that 
 tlie ' great imagination*' of his patient has 
 
 * And so, with great imagination 
 
 Proper lo madmen. 
 
 Shakspeare, Henry IV. Part 2nd, Act 1.
 
 Kbs. IX] OF INbANITV. 135 
 
 been controlled, and his judgment strength- 
 ened, he may drive him into a more danger- 
 ous labyrinth of errors than that from which 
 he appeared to be extricating himself — by in- 
 troducing the discussion of religious topics. 
 Yet, if he can be trusted with the sacred 
 volume, what employment can engage his 
 thoughts more profitably, what moment can 
 be so appropriate as that in which he is re- 
 covering from sickness ; when his mind has 
 been subdued and softened by so appalling 
 a visitation, and is ready to look for comfort, 
 where only it is to be found?* Besides, who 
 can forget Dr. Johnson's relation of his last 
 
 * I own I cannot agree in opinion with those physicians 
 who hold that religious offices are misplaced altogether in 
 houses of lunatics. The experiment has now been made 
 nine years in the Asylum at Lancaster with the most satis- 
 factory result, as the annual reports of Mr. Umpleby, the 
 Chaplain, abundantly testify. Of course, proper precau- 
 tions are taken, that none be admitted to prayers without 
 having been previously examined on the Sunday morning by 
 the medical superintendent, as to their fitness, and capabi- 
 lity of attention. The average number who have attended 
 chapel on Sundays is 11 5.
 
 136 THE TREATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 affecting interview with the poet Collins, 
 who had been deranged some time before, 
 whom he found with no other book than 
 the New Testament ? and when his friend 
 took it into his hand out of curiosity to see 
 what companion a man of letters had chosen, 
 ' I have but one book,' said Collins, ' but 
 that is the best.' 
 
 And who would not be glad to have been 
 the physician, who ministered so happily to 
 ' the mind diseased ' of Cowper, and con- 
 soled him under his humiliation and broken 
 spirits ? Hear his acknowledgments of his 
 obligations to Dr. Cotton, and you will agree 
 with me, that gratitude partakes of the 
 quality of mercy, and is ' twice blessed. It 
 blesses him that gives, and him that takes;' 
 and fortunate above all others is your profes- 
 sion, which gives you occasion to hear the 
 language of gratitude, from some quarter 
 or other, every day ! 
 
 ' I was not," says Cowper m one of his
 
 Ess. IX] OF INSAMiy. 137 
 
 letters, ' only treated by the Doctor with 
 ' the greatest tenderness whilst I was ill, 
 
 * and attended with the utmost diligence, 
 ' but when my reason was restored to me, 
 
 * and I had so much need of a religious 
 ' friend to converse with, to whom I could 
 ' open my mind upon the subject, without 
 ' reserve, 1 could hardly have found a fitter 
 
 * person for the purpose. My eagerness and 
 
 * anxiety to settle my opinions upon that 
 ' long-neglected point made it necessary, 
 ' that, when my mind was yet weak, and my 
 
 * spirits uncertain, I should have some as- 
 ' sistance. The Doctor was as ready to ad- 
 ' minister relief to me in this article like- 
 ' wise, and was as well qualified to do it, as in 
 ' that which was more immediately his pro- 
 ' vince. How many physicians would have 
 ' thought this an irregular appetite, and a 
 
 * symptom of remaining madness.' But it 
 ' it wtMe so, my friend was as mad as my- 
 ' self, and it is well for me that he was so.'
 
 138 THE TUEATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 These are some of the appliances which 
 experience presents to us as auxiliaries to 
 soothe, at least, the afflictions of insanity, and 
 to remedy, in cases which are remediable, 
 this peculiar infirmity of our moral condition, 
 by occupying the mind to the exclusion of 
 those forgeries of the fancy, those ' unreal 
 mockeries,' which, however, are apt to ac- 
 quire the weight of realities, and to become 
 tlie source of motives, if allowed to establish 
 themselves by habit. 
 
 The one great object is to engross the 
 thoughts rationally, to keep the judgment 
 alert, and in active exercise by something 
 which must engage it irresistibly and in- 
 tensely, in order to prevent the intrusion of 
 the delusions, as frightful dreams are pre- 
 vented by keeping the senses awake to re- 
 ceive new successive exciting impressions. 
 Indeed the phantasies of an insane mind 
 resemble more correctly, than anything else, 
 the reveries of dreaming. They are alike
 
 Ess. IX.] OF INSANITY. 139 
 
 irregular, unsubstantial, desultory, incon- 
 gruous with nature, wide of truth, yet taken 
 for truth until reason and judgment awake. 
 
 The same means are applicable to cases 
 which, having once recovered, are again in 
 imminent danger of a relapse into the dis- 
 ease. It is remarkable, and may be fortu- 
 nate, perhaps, in some instances, that we 
 have not unfrequently the advantage of 
 knowing from the patient himself, whose 
 reason begins to be obscured by the flying- 
 vapours of incipient madness, but is not yet 
 eclipsed, that a return of his malady is im- 
 pending over him. On visiting the mad- 
 houses in the neighbourhood of London, 
 some years ago, two patients were pointed 
 out to me, who had come back again, at their 
 own suggestion, and by their own free will, 
 to the chambers from whence they had been 
 dismissed cured, many months before ; and 
 I was once consulted by a very sensible gen-
 
 140 THE TREATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 tleman, who had been insane three several 
 times, on the recurrence of certain indications 
 which, he told me, had preceded every one 
 of his former attacks. He mentioned, in par- 
 ticular, a distressing dream, which he de- 
 tailed, and added, that, though he had a 
 fondness for all kinds of music, he was now 
 haunted incessantly and alarmingly by one 
 of the overtures of Handel, as he had been 
 invariably before. With these signs, as he 
 could not help associating a painful recollec- 
 tion of his previous visitations, and a dread 
 of an instant return of his malady, he desired 
 my advice. I add, with sorrow, that his 
 apprehensions were soon realized, and that 
 he became insane again, in spite of my best 
 attempts to help him, and continued insane 
 as long as he lived. 
 
 It remains that I should say one word on 
 the tests of recovery from a state of insanity. 
 Some physicians will hardly be satisfied by
 
 Efis.IX] OF INSANITY. 141 
 
 any other proof than tliat of an admission 
 on the part of the patient himself, that he 
 has been insane ; but I do not think it quite 
 fair to expect this, particular!}^ if, in tlie 
 course of his malady, frequent argument has 
 been held, as will probably have been the 
 case, on the subject of his erroneous persua- 
 sions. Something must be conceded to the 
 pride of human nature^ which does not easily 
 consent to acknowledge that of which it has 
 long been in the habit of denying the exist- 
 ence. Nor is it always safe, on the other 
 hand, to suppose that a patient has discarded 
 his delusions, merely because he has ceased 
 to divulge them : for if he be aware that 
 you consider them as proofs of the continu- 
 ance of disorder in his mind, he will conceal 
 them from you ; he will be upon his guard, 
 (as he can be at a certain period of his 
 recovery,) and will not talk of them any more, 
 though he still entertain them. You may
 
 142 THE TREATMENT [Ess. IX. 
 
 recollect the cases quoted by Mr. Erskine 
 on the trial of Hatfield ; and I remember 
 hearing the late Lord Ellenborough express, 
 in the strongest terms, his conviction that an 
 insane person was now recovered, after hav- 
 ing observed him to sustain a lengthened 
 conversation upon an important subject 
 with great good sense and sobriety. Never- 
 theless, this patient was detected, a few days 
 afterwards, under the full influence of his 
 delusion, using Latin, however, to express 
 his thoughts, that he might elude, if pos- 
 sible, the watchful notice of his attendants. 
 What then shall we consider a proof of re- 
 covery ? and when shall we be justified in 
 opening the door, and allowing a person 
 who has been insane, to go out and resume 
 the management of his own affairs ? 
 
 Undoubtedly, if he do in good faith, as 
 Cowper did, acknowledge that he has been 
 ill, though he now claim to be considered
 
 Ess. IX. ] OF INSANITY. 143 
 
 well — if he has discarded the one over- 
 whelming idea, and has ceased for some time 
 to indulge in those ill-founded conceits, 
 and in those overt acts, which arose out of it, 
 and which characterized his distemper — if 
 he sleep habitually well, and his general 
 manner and demeanour do now manifest a 
 contrast with his late behaviour — and if he 
 continue to command himself, and his con- 
 duct be uniformly rational and proper for a 
 given time ; then I would say with the phy- 
 cician in King Lear, ' Be comforted, good 
 madam ! — The great rage you see is cured in 
 him,' and I should think it safe and proper 
 to emancipate him, at least on trial.
 
 ESSAY X. 
 
 DEATHS OF SOME ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONS 
 • OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Although it may appear, at first sight, an 
 object of mere idle curiosity to enquire into 
 the deaths of celebrated persons of anti- 
 quity, yet it will be readily admitted, on 
 reflection, that when our feelings have 
 been captivated by the history of the trans- 
 actions of an illustrious life, the mind is 
 unsatisfied so long as any thing remain to 
 be told of the person who has so much in- 
 terested curiosity and absorbed attention. 
 Nor am I afraid to aver that even the mo- 
 ralist, who stipulates, as the price of his 
 attention, that a detail of virtue to be imi- 
 
 L
 
 146 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 tated, or of vice to be shunned shall be laid 
 before him, may not wholly lose his recom- 
 pense in some of the cases to which I shall 
 call your attention this evening. But the 
 physician, besides obtaining some curious 
 records of political customs prevailing in 
 the countries where, and at the periods 
 when these illustrious persons lived, will_, 
 I trust, find not a few facts connected with 
 the operation of medicines, then first di- 
 vulged, though since made familiar to him 
 by time and experience ; and will be able 
 to correct by his improved knowledge of 
 the medical art, some misapprehensions as 
 to the nature of the diseases which led to 
 the death of these eminent persons. 
 
 Sylla, the dictator, died by the rup- 
 ture of an internal abscess, in a paroxysm 
 of rage. He had, it seems, set his heart 
 upon the restoration of the capitol, and 
 upon its dedication by a certain day. But
 
 Ess. XJ PERSOIVS OF ANTIQUITY. 147 
 
 a messenger brought him intelligence that 
 the resources he expected for this purpose 
 were not forthcoming. On which he gave 
 way to his unbridled passion, vomited a 
 large quantity of blood, passed a night of 
 great distress ([xo^Qrif^wg st^s is Plutarch's 
 phrase) and died on the following morning. 
 The expressions of Valerius Maximus are 
 very forcible. ' Spiritum cruore ac minis 
 mixtum evomuit ;' and afterwards * ut du- 
 bium esset Sylla ne prius ecctingueretur, an 
 Syllce iracundia.' A striking example to 
 those who take no pains to control their 
 passions, and doubly impressive on such as 
 with the same violence of temper have any 
 thing weak or unsound in their structure. 
 
 A further question of the same author, 
 ' Quid Sylla dum huic vitio obtemperat, nonne 
 multo alieno sanguine profuso, ad ultimum et 
 suum erogavit?' suggests another moral les- 
 son, of retributive justice, for it intimates, 
 
 L2
 
 148 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 that it was indulgence in the same furious 
 passion which had made him so prodigal of 
 the lives of others in the days of the pro- 
 scription, that now cost him his own. 
 
 Crass us, the eminent Roman orator and 
 friend of Cicero, died of a pleurisy. He 
 had been speaking with great animation 
 and effect in the senate, when he was seized 
 with a pain in his side and broke out into 
 a profuse perspiration. On going home he 
 had a shivering fit, followed by fever. The 
 pain in the side still continued, and he died 
 on the 7th day of this disease. The terms 
 of deep sorrow in which Cicero* laments so 
 feelingly and so beautifully the loss of this 
 eminent man, m.ay justify the regret of phy- 
 sicians, even at this distant period, that it 
 has not been transmitted down to them what 
 resources of our art were resorted to in 
 order to save a life so valuable to his coun- 
 * Cicero de Oratore. Lib. iii. sub initio.
 
 Ess.X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 149 
 
 try. Thus much, however, we do know, 
 that Celsus, who lived not many years 
 afterwards, suggests the proper treatment 
 of a pleurisy by bleeding, cupping, and 
 blistering, all the expedients, in fact, which 
 we use at this era of improvement in the 
 art of medicine. We may rest assured, 
 therefore, that nothing was left undone to 
 save this distinguished person ; and that the 
 regret of his friends was not aggravated, 
 nor their grief rendered more poignant by 
 any consideration of that kind. 
 
 Of PoMPONius Atticus, whom Cicero 
 loved as a brother, and whose amiability 
 secured him the esteem of all parties, in the 
 most distracted condition of the state, both 
 in their elevation and depression, as they 
 were alternately triumphant, or beaten down, 
 the mortal disease is said to have been 
 a fistula in the loins ; probably a dysen- 
 tery, ending, as it sometimes does, in an
 
 150 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 ulceration of the lower bowel, for he is 
 described as having suffered tormina in the 
 intestines, and tenesmus. Finding his dis- 
 ease increase, notwithstanding his patient 
 use of all the medicines which had been 
 prescribed for him, he called his friends 
 together, and told them, that he was now 
 determined not to take either food or physic 
 again, and intreated them not to attempt to 
 dissuade him from his fixed purpose. After 
 two days' abstinence the complaint seemed 
 to leave him, but this did not move him 
 from his resolution. He persevered till 
 iiis death, which occurred on the fifth day, 
 when he was seventy-seven years old. 
 
 This resource of starvation, under irreme- 
 diable disease seems to have been resorted 
 to frequently by the Romans, as it had been 
 occasionally by the Greeks. There is a 
 very interesting letter in Pliny the Younger 
 narrating the death of one of his friends,
 
 Ess. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 151 
 
 whose wife sent to Pliny, to come and dis- 
 suade her husband from his unhappy resolve 
 to take no more food. When, however, 
 Pliny arrived, it was too late. He learnt that 
 his friend was just dead, and that his con- 
 stant reply to all the affectionate entreaties 
 of his family, was only xix^ixct, decrevi, 
 ' I have made up my mind.' 
 
 It should seem that the ancients valued 
 themselves upon their intrepidity in falling 
 upon their own swords, or in ridding them- 
 selves of life by any other means, when 
 pain or disaster had made them weary of it ; 
 and the credit they obtained for such forti- 
 tude might be a sufficient compensation for 
 the sacrifice of an existence which was only 
 painful ; without the consolation of that sure 
 and certain hope of a better life hereafter, 
 which the Gospel of mercy and peace holds 
 forth to the faithful Christian under all his 
 sufferings. 
 
 With the latter end of Socrates you are
 
 152 DEATHS OF ILLUSTUIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 well acquainted. He was put to death by 
 the common mode at Athens, of dispatching 
 persons capitally convicted ; that is, by a 
 narcotic poison. But as neither Xenophon 
 nor Plato mentions the precise poison which 
 was employed, we are left to conjecture 
 what it was by our knowledge of what 
 narcotics the Greeks were acquainted with 
 or employed at that time. They knew, 
 amongst others, the Aconite, the Black 
 Poppy, the Hyoscyamus* and Hemlock. 
 Perhaps the black poppy might have been 
 the Theban drug, our opium. The Hyoscy- 
 amus is used at Constantinople, and_, I be- 
 lieve, throughout the Morea, at this day, 
 under the name of Nebensch, which sounds 
 so like Nepenthe, that Homer's 
 
 NooTTEvOsy r ay^oXov te, Kaxwv sfTiXnOov aTravrcov — 
 
 (Od. A. 221.) 
 
 occurs to our minds irresistibly, and makes 
 
 * Of the Hyoscyamus, two species are descril)ed by Dio- 
 scorides, as being both //.uvieo^iTi , and KapurlMi, and therefore 
 W;^{>!ffT(», but a third kind is mentioned as a useful sedative.
 
 Es8. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 153 
 
 US suspect, that the Hyoscyamus had been 
 known from very early times as a narcotic. 
 
 But it is most probable that the poison 
 which was administered to Socrates, was the 
 same as that which was given to other con- 
 demned criminals, and that, we know, was 
 the x(i)vsiov*, the Cicuta, Hemlock. Dion, 
 the father of Dionysius the tyrant of Syra- 
 cuse, who was intimately acquainted with 
 Plato, and therefore a contemporary of So- 
 crates, was poisoned by Hemlock, and 
 Plutarch f says, that Phocion drank the 
 xcoveiov. This, we have reason to suppose, 
 was always fresh pounded for the occasion ; 
 and we learn from Theophrastus,^ that the 
 whole plant was usually pounded together, 
 but that the Chians peeled off the outer 
 rind, as occasioning pain, and that then 
 
 * See Aristophanes' Ran. 123, quoted by Forster towards 
 tlie end of his notes on the Phsedo. 
 
 •I" Vide Plutarchum in Vita Phocionis, 6. 37. 
 t Hist. PI. ix. 17.
 
 154 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 having bruised the other part, and put it in 
 water, they drank the infusion, and found it 
 to cause an easy death. Juvenal was there- 
 fore correct in speaking of the Cicuta as 
 the poison which Socrates drank. 
 
 ' Hunc inopem vidistis Athenae 
 Nil praeler gelidas ausse conferre Cicutas.' 
 
 Whatever the poison were, it must have 
 been one of weak and tardy operation ; 
 for the executioner told Socrates, that it 
 would prevent its effect, if he entered into 
 earnest dispute, and that it was sometimes 
 necessary to repeat the dose three or four 
 times. After a while, the Philosopher is 
 described as having felt a weight in his legs, 
 as if he had been intoxicated. The effect of 
 the drug grew stronger, and made him, at 
 length, so insensible to pain, that he did not 
 feel when his foot was pinched. The ex- 
 tremities grew cold, — he was convulsed, and 
 expired.
 
 E8S.X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 155 
 
 But what was the poison contained in that 
 
 * Cannarum Vindex, et tanti sanguinis ultor 
 Annulus' by which Hannibal destroyed 
 himself? When the tyrant of Bithynia had 
 pointed out to his enemies who were in 
 pursuit of him, the house in which Hannibal 
 lodged, the unfortunate General, finding 
 his fate inevitable, said, according to Livy, 
 ' Now* will we liberate these Romans from 
 ' their unceasing solicitude about us. They 
 
 * are tired/ it seems, of waiting for the death 
 ' of an old man,' and took the poison. What 
 it was, it is almost impossible that we should 
 ever know. Modern chemistry, indeed, 
 could furnish twenty poisons capable of 
 being comprehended within the space of a 
 ring. One drop of Prussic acid, contained 
 in a small glass tube open at both ends, and 
 held between the finger and thumb, so as to 
 
 * Solvamus diuturna cura populum Komanum, qtiando 
 mortem senis expectare longum ceiiset. — Livy.
 
 156 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 touch both when in motion, would paralyze 
 the arm almost instantaneously, and, of 
 course_, if taken into the stomach, would 
 forthwith arrest the current of life. But 
 although the Carthaginians were a much 
 more civilized people than their enemies, the 
 Romans (who happen to be their historians), 
 are willing to allow, yet it is too much to 
 suppose, that they knew how to prepare the 
 Prussic acid. No, — Lyhia feraoc venenorum, 
 Lybia abounding in the venom of serpents, 
 and in the inspissated juices of deleterious 
 vegetables more probably furnished them 
 with the poisons in question, and afforded 
 to Hannibal a sure resource whenever his 
 circumstances should become desperate.* 
 As to the report of his being poisoned by 
 
 * My friend Mr. Hatchett conjectures that the poison 
 which Hannibal took might have been the inspissated exu- 
 dation of the Euphorbia officinalis. The Euphorbia is a 
 native of Africa, abundant there, and was well known as 
 one of the most powerful acrid vegetable poisons.
 
 Ess. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITV. 157 
 
 drinking bullock's blood, mentioned by Plu- 
 tarch, it must be a fable, as was that also of 
 the death of Themistocles by drinking a 
 similar draught, for the blood of that animal 
 is not poisonous. An accomplished Noble- 
 man told me that he was present at one of 
 the bull-fights at Madrid, when a person 
 rushed from the crowd, and having made his 
 way to the bull which the Matador had just 
 stricken, caught the blood, as it flowed from 
 the wound, in a goblet, and drank it off 
 before the assembly. On inquiring into the 
 object which the poor Spaniard had in view, 
 it appeared that the blood of a bull just 
 slain was a popular remedy for consumptive 
 symptoms. 
 
 Of the poison by which Nero destroyed 
 Britannic us — I think we may form a proba- 
 ble conjecture, by considering all the circum- 
 stances of the narrative of Tacitus*, taken in 
 
 * See Annal. Lib. xiii. c. 15.
 
 158 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 comparison with the effects of a deleterious 
 distilment made notorious in our days, thi 
 laurel water. The historian states, that 
 when Nero had determined to dispatch the 
 ill-fated youth, he sent for Locusta, a con- 
 victed female poisoner, who had been par- 
 doned, and was kept for state purposes, 
 Nero ordered her to prepare a poison which 
 should produce its effect immediately, in 
 distinction from one of those which should 
 prove fatal at some distant given day ; for 
 the notion prevailed then (as at the begin- 
 ning of the last century, when the aqua 
 topJiana, a solution of Arsenic, was used for 
 these base purposes), that poisoners could 
 devise a draught which would operate at 
 any given period. Locusta prepared one 
 which killed a goat after five hours. This 
 would not serve the tyrant's purpose — he 
 ordered her to provide a more speedy in- 
 strument, to prepare it in his own chamber.
 
 Ess. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 159 
 
 ^and in his presence. The boiling began, 
 cand was urged to the effectual moment ; in 
 proof of which it was tried on a hog, and the 
 animal was killed by it immediately. Dinner 
 is served. The young members of the 
 Imperial Family are sitting at the foot of 
 the table. The Emperor and his guests re- 
 clining on their sides. The unhappy youth 
 calls for water — the Preegustator tastes it, 
 and then serves it. It is too hot. Some of 
 it is poured off, and the glass is filled up 
 with a fluid resembling water — but this con- 
 tains the poison. The young man drinks it, 
 and is seized instantly with an epileptic fit, 
 in which he expires. He is buried the same 
 night. 
 
 This detail may recall to the recollection 
 of many of you the case of Sir Theodosius 
 Boughton, who was poisoned by Captain 
 Donellan, in the year 1780, with laurel 
 water. It appeared probable, on the trial,
 
 160 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 that the fluid in which the jalap had been 
 mixed as a purgative medicine, and sent by 
 Sir Theodosius Boughton's apothecary, had 
 been poured off, and laurel water substi- 
 tuted in its room. The effect was precisely 
 the same in the two cases ; each of the un- 
 happy victims experienced an epileptic fit 
 which proved fatal immediately. You re- 
 member the testimony of the late Mr. John 
 Hunter, who went down to Warwick to give 
 his opinion respecting the disease of which 
 Sir Theodosius had died, and that he pro- 
 nounced it an epileptic fit. 
 
 Nero, whilst the poor youth was convulsed 
 and struggling under the workings of the 
 poison, had the audacity to state to his 
 associates at the table, that they need not 
 disquiet themselves, the youth would soon 
 be himself again — that he had been subject 
 to epileptic fits from his infancy ; and Do- 
 nellan, in the same defiance of truth, alleged
 
 Ess. X] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. IGl 
 
 that there was no reason for surprise at the 
 sudden death of Sir Theodosius Boughton, 
 as he was subject to fits of this dangerous 
 character. 
 
 Another circumstance is mentioned by 
 Dio Cassius ; viz., an extraordinary livid- 
 ness* which came over the face of Bri- 
 tannicus, and which Nero was tempted 
 to endeavour to conceal by paint, lest it 
 should betray the secret that he had perished 
 by foul means. Now I remember to have 
 seen the face of Sir Theodosius Boughton, 
 when the corpse had been disinterred, in 
 order to be examined for the satisfaction of 
 
 * ^iXilm — Does Juvenal allude to this circumstance in 
 his first Satire ? — 
 
 Instituitque rudes melior Locusta propinquas 
 Per famam, et populura nigros efFerre maritos. 
 If so, by the epithet, nigros, he may l)e fairly supposed to 
 have associated the name of the infamous Locusta, with 
 the appropriate effect of the peculiar poison by which she 
 usually executed her diabolical purposes. 
 
 M
 
 1G2 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 the Coroner's Jury, and its colour resembled 
 that of a pickled walnut. I do not lay much 
 stress upon these circumstances, though 
 they are not without their interest. But if 
 we only suppose that the Romans were 
 acquainted with the deleterious influence 
 of the Laurel, and the process of distilla- 
 tion, we shall find no difiiculty in supposing 
 that Britannicus was poisoned by Laurel 
 Water. 
 
 It is true that it is the Lauro Cerasus 
 from which we have distilled the Laurel 
 Water, and that the Lauro Cerasus is not 
 indigenous in Italy, but is a native of Col- 
 chis*, and the neighbourhood of the Euxine 
 Sea. But, why may it not have been im- 
 ported trom thence with the Venena Col- 
 chica, of which we read so frequently ? And 
 when we recollect, moreover, that this 
 
 * The first Laurel brought into this country came from 
 Trebizond.
 
 Ess.X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 163 
 
 Canidia, whom Nero employed, was a con- 
 victed adept in the art of poisoning, it is not 
 difficult to persuade ourselves, that the 
 Lauro Cerasus might have been the mate- 
 rial which Locusta boiled in Nero's presence. 
 The Laurus Nobilis, the Daphne, grows 
 spontaneously about Rome, and was dedi- 
 cated to Apollo^ the God of Physic ; and the 
 enlightened inhabitants of that great city 
 could not fail to have heard of the influence 
 of the Daphne upon the Pythian priestess at 
 the temple of Delphi, the oracle of their 
 Grecian neighbours, centuries before. The 
 priestess, you know, was agitated and con- 
 vulsed before she prophesied^ and these con- 
 vulsions were occasioned by the use of the 
 Daphne,* which she was compelled to take, 
 
 * Professor Sibthorp, who visited Greece in 1794, thus 
 writes in his manuscript Journal : — ' On the rocks of Del- 
 phi I observed some curious plants; a new species of 
 Daphne, which 1 have called Daphne Castaliensis, af- 
 forded me singular pleasure.' 
 
 M 2
 
 164 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 in some form or other, always to the dan- 
 ger, and frequently to the destruction of 
 her life. 
 
 As to their knowledge of the art of dis- 
 tillation, it is true, that they had not the 
 still and the refrigeratory, which modern 
 science has brought to such perfection ; but 
 they practised the simpler mode of receiving 
 the vapour of the boiling herbs in a handful 
 of wool, or in a sponge, from which they 
 squeezed it when cold, and kept it for use. 
 This was a ruder mode of obtaining the 
 virtue of herbs ; but nevertheless, not an 
 ineffectual one. 
 
 Alexander the Great was said to 
 have been poisoned ; but the best account 
 of his death is written by Arrian, who men- 
 tions such a report as having prevailed ; 
 but this, after giving a rational detail of his 
 illness, and also recounting the daily bulle- 
 tins which were issued respecting it, the
 
 Ess. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 165 
 
 most ancient series of bulletins on record. 
 The story went, that a poison had been sent 
 to him by Antipater* , prepared by Aris- 
 totle, (to his everlasting infamy, had it been 
 true, for the Stagirite had been Alexander's 
 preceptor,) that this poison had been con- 
 veyed in the hoof of a mule, being of so 
 subtle a nature, that no vessel of silver or 
 iron or any other metal could contain it. 
 Plutarch states this, and so does Quintus 
 Curfius, with whom agree Justin and Plinyf". 
 But had it been sent at all, it would not 
 have been conveyed in the hoof of a mule, or 
 of any other beast of burthen, as tlie com- 
 mentators on the foregoing authors amuse 
 themselves with alleging ; but in an onyx, 
 a stone of some value, which was employed 
 to hold precious ointments. We have in 
 
 * Viceroy of Macedon during Alexanders absence, 
 t Lib. XXX. c. )5.
 
 166 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 Horace, "Nardi parvus onyx." Now ovu^ 
 in Greek signifies, not only this stone, but 
 also unguis, the first sense of which is a 
 human nail ; but the second is the hoof of a 
 horse, or mule. The second sense of unguis, 
 therefore, was given by mistake, instead of 
 a precious stone. The late Dr. Heberden 
 (whose memory deserves the peculiar re- 
 spect of our profession, as he was not only 
 a ripe and good scholar, but an excellent 
 physician) unravels the mysterious tale of 
 the custom of professed poisoners, of carry- 
 ing their poisons under their nails^ by this 
 misinterpretation of the word ow^. And 
 the same satisfactory explanation may be 
 applied, I think, to this fable of the imputed 
 atrocity of Antipater. 
 
 Alexander died, in fact, of a remittent 
 fever, which he had caught in the marshes 
 of Babylon. He had resolved to make that
 
 Ess. X] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 167 
 
 mother of cities and cradle of civilization 
 the capital of his great eastern empire, and 
 occupied himself, amongst other important 
 objects, with diverting the channel of the 
 Euphrates, and draining some enormous 
 lakes which the river had left from time to 
 time by overflowing its banks. He super- 
 intended these operations himself, and be- 
 gan to complain of fever on the day which 
 he had set apart for offering a splendid 
 sacrifice for the success of his intended ex- 
 pedition to Arabia. 
 
 After the banquet, he was prevailed upon 
 to spend the evening with Medius, one of 
 his favourites, where he remained till after 
 midnight, not, however, to commit any ex- 
 cess, but for the pleasure of social inter- 
 course, for Arrian says, expressly,* that 
 o) TTOTOi 6s, ou TOO oiuou svsxa, [xaxpol auTco 
 
 * Vide Arrian de Expedit. Alexandri, lib. 7. Sub tinem.
 
 168 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Kss. X. 
 
 hyiyvovTO (ou yap ttivsiv TTo'kuv ohov A7\.s^av^^ov) 
 aTO^a <PiXQ<Ppoa'6vrig Trjg sig rovg sraipoog ; — 
 attesting that in the pleasures of the table 
 he was temperate, not to say abstinent. 
 The fever had now established itself in his 
 frame, and the extraordinary fatigues which 
 he had undergone ; the exposure within the 
 last three years to the rains of the Punjab ; 
 the burning sands of Gedrosia, and the frost 
 and snow of Mount Zagrus, and lastly to the 
 marsh miasmata of the Babylonian lakes, 
 leave us but little cause for surprise, 
 that all proved at length too much for even 
 his frame of adamant to bear. He died 
 about the 12th day. No physician is men- 
 tioned, but we conjecture from the bulletins 
 that the king's dependence for recovery was 
 upon abstinence and bathing. The bulletins 
 are given, both by Arrian and Plutarch, the 
 latter taking them from the Diary of the
 
 Ess. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQIITY. 169 
 
 royal secretary, Eumenes, famous afterwards 
 for his struggle for power with others of 
 Alexander's generals. 
 
 On the 1st day. It is stated that he drank 
 in festive company with Medius ; on rising 
 bathed, and then went to rest. 
 
 2nd day. After bathing, he returned to 
 his bed-chamber, bathed again late in the 
 evening, then after supper he made the ac- 
 customed offerings to the Gods — and had 
 fever through the night. 
 
 3rd day. Having bathed, he performed 
 the usual duties of the sacrifice, and passed 
 the day in the bathing-hall, giving orders to 
 the commanders for the march of the army, 
 and the sailing of the fleet. He was then 
 carried on a couch to the river, which he 
 crossed in a boat to a summer-house, where 
 again he bathed and passed the night. 
 
 4th day. He bathed and sacrificed as the 
 law required. In the evening he took a
 
 170 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 light supper, and being carried to his bed- 
 chamber, the fever increased, and he passed 
 a very bad night. 
 
 5th day. His fever being violent, he was 
 carried to the great swimming bath, and 
 lying by it, he conversed with the Generals 
 about some persons fit to be appointed to 
 vacant commands. 
 
 6th day. He performed again his reli- 
 gious ceremonies, and although there was no 
 intermission of the fever, he would see the 
 generals, and give orders about the expe- 
 dition. 
 
 On the following day, it was not without 
 difficulty that he was carried to the altar 
 to make the sacrifice. Nevertheless, he 
 would see the officers and give his com- 
 mands. 
 
 On the 8th, although extremely ill, he 
 made the accustomed sacred ofterings, and 
 ordered the generals to remain assembled
 
 Ess. X.] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 171 
 
 in the court. He was carried from the 
 summer-house in the park to the palace. 
 When the generals entered he knew them, 
 but said nothing. His fever was very 
 violent during the night. 
 
 On the 9th it was equally violent; on 
 the 10th the same. This day the army be- 
 came impatient to see the king ; upon 
 which they were permitted to enter his 
 chamber in small parties. The king looked 
 at them steadfastly, but did not speak. 
 
 The next day the king died. 
 
 I wish I could, without too severe a de- 
 mand on your time, add to this detail of 
 Alexander's sickness, which vindicates his 
 memory from the disgraceful imputation too 
 lightly cast upon him of habitual intemper- 
 ance, and especially from the reproach of 
 owing his death to a drunken debauch ; I 
 wish, I say, I could, without being tedious' 
 add to this detail Arrian's beautiful por-
 
 172 DEATHS OF ILLUSTRIOUS [Ess. X. 
 
 traiture of the character of that great man, 
 whose spirit and energy, manifested in the 
 conquest of so large an extent of country, 
 was fully equalled by his wisdom in con- 
 trolling and attaching to his government 
 the nations which he had subdued. Of the 
 merit of his system of policy of intermarry- 
 ing his wounded soldiers with the females of 
 the conquered countries, and of appointing 
 Macedonian officers to command the native 
 troops, what stronger proofs can be given, 
 than that the experience of more than two 
 thousand years has added nothing to what 
 his instinctive discernment had already sug- 
 gested to him. That his successors were 
 taught by what he had done, to found and to 
 govern kingdoms ; and that the efficiency of 
 the British army in India, to keep in sub- 
 jection nearly one hundred millions of the 
 inhabitants of that vast country, is at this 
 day maintained by the very same measures
 
 Ess. X] PERSONS OF ANTIQUITY. 173 
 
 which Alexander devised and carried into 
 execution *. 
 
 But I must not forget, that my theme 
 was not the lives, but the deaths of some 
 illustrious persons of antiquity. 
 
 * The life of Alexander has betn written lately with 
 great research and discrimination, by the Rev. Mr. Wil- 
 liams, of Lampeter : it forms the third number of the 
 Family Library.
 
 
 1813. 
 
 Tim^T
 
 AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF WHAT APPEARED ON 
 
 OPENING THE COFFIN 
 
 OF 
 
 KING CHARLES THE FIRST, 
 
 IN THE VAULT OF KING HENRY VIII. 
 IN 
 
 ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR, 
 
 ON THE FIRST OF APRIL, MDCCCXIII.
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 The following narrative of the investigation, which 
 look place at Windsor, on Thursday the 1st of April, 
 1813, in the vault of King Henry VHI., will probably 
 be rendered more satisfactory by a comparison with 
 the statements of Lord Clarendon and Mr. Herbert, 
 with respect to the interment of King Charles I. 
 
 For the convenience of the reader, therefore, those 
 narratives are here reprinted, as an appendix.
 
 It is stated by Lord Clarendon, in his His- 
 tory of the Rebellion, that the body of King 
 Charles I., though known to be interred in 
 St. George's Chapel, at Windsor, could not 
 be found, when searched for there some 
 years afterwards. It seems, by the histo- 
 rian's account, to have been the wish and 
 the intention of King Charles II., after his 
 restoration, to take up his father's corpse, 
 and to re-inter it in Westminster Abbey, 
 with those royal honours which had been 
 denied it under the government of the regi- 
 cides. The most careful search was made 
 for the body by several people, amongst 
 whom were some of those noble persons 
 whose faithful attachment had led them to 
 
 N
 
 IV OPENING THE COFFIN OF 
 
 pay their last tribute of respect to their un- 
 fortunate master by attending him to the 
 grave. Yet such had been the injury done 
 to the chapel, such were the mutilations it 
 had undergone, during the period of the 
 usurpation, that no marks were left, by which 
 the exact place of burial of the king could 
 be ascertained*. 
 
 There is some difficulty in reconciling this 
 account with the information which has 
 reached us since the death of Lord Claren- 
 don, particularly with that of Mr. Ashmole, 
 and more especially with that most interest- 
 ing narrative of Mr. Herbert, given in the 
 ' Athenee Oxonienses.' Mr. Herbert had 
 been a groom of the bed-chamber, and a 
 
 * Pope, alluding to the doubt which was entertained in 
 his day, as to the place of the King's interment, invokes the 
 Muse to 
 
 ' Make sacred Charles's tomb for ever known, 
 ' (Obscure the place and nninscribed the stone.') 
 Windsor Foi-est, v. 319.
 
 KING ClIARLKS I. V 
 
 faithful companion of the king in all circum- 
 stances, from the time he left the Isle of 
 Wight, until his death — was employed to 
 convey his body to Windsor, and to fix upon 
 a proper place for his interment there ; and 
 was an eye-witness to that interment, in the 
 vault of King Henry VIII. 
 
 Were it allowable to hazard a conjecture, 
 after Lord Clarendon's deprecation of all con- 
 jectures on the subject, one might suppose 
 that it was deemed imprudent, by the minis- 
 ters of King Charles II. that his Majesty 
 should indulge his pious inclination to re-inter 
 his father, at a period when those ill-judged 
 eifusions of loyalty which had been mani- 
 fested by taking out of their graves and 
 hanging up the bodies of some of the most 
 active members of the court which had con- 
 demned and executed the king might, in 
 the event of another triumph of the re- 
 publicans, have subjected the body of the 
 
 N 2
 
 VI OPENING THE COFFIN OF 
 
 monarch to similar indignity. But the fact 
 is, King Charles I. was buried in the vault of 
 King Henry VIII. situated precisely where 
 Mr. Herbert has described it ;* and an 
 accident has served to elucidate a point in 
 history, which the great authority of Lord 
 Clarendon had involved in some obscurity. 
 
 On completing the mausoleum which his 
 present Majesty has built in the tomb-house, 
 as it is called, it was necessary to form a 
 passage to it from under the choir of St. 
 George's Chapel. In constructing this pas- 
 sage, an aperture was made accidentally in 
 one of the walls of the vault of King Henry 
 VIII., through which the workmen were en- 
 abled to see, not only the two coffins which 
 were supposed to contain the bodies of King 
 Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour, but 
 
 * Mr. Herbert, whose account furnished the clue to our 
 inquiry, retired immediately after his Majesty's death into 
 Yorkshire, and lived to the beginning of the next century. 
 His papers were not published till sometime after his death.
 
 KING CllAKLES 1. Vll 
 
 a third also, covered with a black velvet 
 pall, which, from Mr. Herbert's narrative, 
 might fairly be presumed to hold the re- 
 mains of King Charles I. 
 
 On representing the circumstanceto the 
 Prince Regent, his Royal Highness per- 
 ceived at once, that a doubtful point in his- 
 tory might be cleared up by opening this 
 vault ; and accordingly his Royal Highness 
 ordered an examination to be made on the 
 first convenient opportunity. This was done 
 on the first of April last, the day after the 
 funeral of the Duchess of Brunswick, in the 
 presence of his Royal Highness himself, who 
 guaranteed thereby the most respectful care 
 and attention to the remains of the dead 
 during the inquiry. His Royal Highness 
 was accompanied by his Royal Highness 
 the Duke of Cumberland, Count Munster, 
 the Dean of Windsor, Benjamin Charles 
 Stevenson, Esq., and Sir Henry Halford.
 
 VUl OPENIN^G THE COFFIN OF 
 
 The vault is covered by an arch, half a 
 brick in thickness, is seven feet two inches 
 in vi^idth, nine feet six inches in length, and 
 four feet ten inches in height, and is situ- 
 ated in the centre of the choir, opposite 
 the eleventh knight's stall, on the sove- 
 reign's side. 
 
 On removing the pall, a plain leaden coffin, 
 with no appearance of ever having been in- 
 closed in wood, and bearing an inscription 
 ' King Charles, 1648,' in large, legible 
 characters, on a scroll of lead encircling it, 
 immediately presented itself to the view. A 
 square opening was then made in the upper 
 part of the lid, of such dimensions as to ad- 
 mit a clear insight into its contents. These 
 were, an internal wooden coffin, very much 
 decayed, and the body carefully wrapped 
 up in cere-cloth, into the folds of which 
 a quantity of unctuous or greasy matter 
 mixed with resin, as it seemed, had been
 
 KING CHARLES I. iX 
 
 melted, so as to exclude, as effectually as 
 possible, the external air. The coffin was 
 completely full ; and from the tenacity of 
 the cere-clothj great difficulty was expe- 
 rienced in detaching it successfully from 
 the parts which it enveloped. Wherever 
 the unctuous matter had insinuated itself, 
 the separation of the cere-cloth was easy ; 
 and when it came off, a correct impression of 
 the features to which it had been applied 
 was observed in the unctuous substance. At 
 length, the whole face was disengaged from 
 its covering. The complexion of the skin 
 of it was dark and discoloured. The fore- 
 head and temples had lost little or nothing 
 of their muscular substance ; the cartilage 
 of the nose was gone ; but the left eye, in 
 the first moment of exposure, was open and 
 full, though it vanished almost immediately : 
 and the pointed beard, so characteristic of 
 the period of the reign of King Charles, was
 
 X OPENING THE COFFIN OF 
 
 perfect. The shape of the face was a long 
 oval ; many of the teeth remained ; and the 
 left ear, in consequence of the interposition 
 of the unctuous matter between it and the 
 cere-cloth, was found entire. 
 
 It was difficult, at this moment, to with- 
 hold a declaration, that, notwithstanding 
 its disfigurement^ the countenance did bear 
 a strong resemblance to the coins, the busts, 
 and especially to the pictures of King 
 Charles I. by Vandyke, by which it had 
 been made familiar to us. It is true, that 
 the minds of the spectators of this interest- 
 ing sight were well prepared to receive this 
 impression ; but it is also certain, that such 
 a facility of belief had been occasioned by 
 the simplicity and truth of Mr. Herbert's 
 Narrative, every part of which had been 
 confirmed by the investigation, so far as it 
 had advanced : and it will not be denied 
 that the shape of the face, the forehead, an
 
 KING ClIAULES I. XI 
 
 eye, and the beard, are the most important 
 features by which resemblance is deter- 
 mined. 
 
 When the head had been entirely disen- 
 gaged from the attachments which confined 
 it, it was found to be loose, and, without 
 any difficulty, was taken up and held to 
 view. It was quite wet*, and gave a 
 
 * I have not asserted this liquid to be blood, because I 
 had not an opportunity of being sure that it was so, and I 
 wished to record facts only, and not opinions: I believe it, 
 however, to have been blood, in which the head rested. It 
 irave to writing paper, and to a white handkerchief, such a 
 colour as blood which has been kept for a length of time 
 generally leaves behind it. Nobody present had a doubt of 
 its being blood ; and it appears from Mr. Herbert's narra- 
 tive, that the King was embalmed immediately after deca- 
 pitation. It is probable, therefore, that the large blood 
 vessels continued to empty themselves for some time after- 
 wards. I am aware, that some of the softer parts of the 
 human body, and particularly the brain, undergo, in the 
 course of time, a decomposition, and will melt. A liquid, 
 therefore, might be found after long interment, where solids 
 only had been buried : but the weight of the head, in this 
 instance, gave no suspicion that the brain had lost its sub- 
 stance; and no moisture appeared in any other part of the 
 coffin, as far as we could see, excepting at the back part of 
 the head and neck.
 
 Xll OPENING THE COFFIN OF 
 
 greenish red tinge to paper and to linen 
 which touched it. The back part of the 
 scalp was entirely perfect, and had a re- 
 markably fresh appearance ; the pores of the 
 skin being more distinct, as they usually are 
 when soaked in moisture ; and the tendons 
 and ligaments of the neck were of consider- 
 able substance and firmness. The hair was 
 thick at the back part of the head, and, in 
 appearance, nearly black. A portion of it, 
 which has since been cleaned and dried, 
 is of a beautiful dark brown colour. That 
 of the beard was a redder brown. On the 
 back part of the head it was more than an 
 inch in length, and had probably been cut 
 so short for the convenience of the execu- 
 tioner, or perhaps by the piety of friends 
 soon after death, in order to furnish memo- 
 rials of the unhappy king. 
 
 On holding up the head, to examine the 
 place of separation from the body, the
 
 KING CHARLES I. Xlll 
 
 muscles of the neck had evidently retracted 
 themselves considerably ; and the fourth cer- 
 vical vertebra vv^as found to be cut through 
 its substance transversely, leaving the sur- 
 faces of the divided portions perfectly smooth 
 and even, an appearance which could have 
 been produced only by a heavy blov^^, in- 
 flicted vi^ith a very sharp instrument, and 
 which furnished the last proof wanting to 
 identify King Charles the First. 
 
 After this examination of the head, which 
 served every purpose in view, and without 
 examining the body below the neck, it was 
 immediately restored to its situation, the 
 coffin was soldered up again, and the vault 
 closed. 
 
 Neither of the other coffins had any in- 
 scription upon them. The larger one, sup- 
 posed on good grounds to contain the re- 
 mains of King Henry VIII. measured six 
 feet ten inchei? in len<ith, and had been in-
 
 XIV Or^ENlNG THE COFFIN OF 
 
 closed in an elm one of two inches in thick- 
 ness : but this was decayed, and lay in small 
 fragments near it. The leaden coffin ap- 
 peared to have been beaten in by violence 
 about the middle ; and a considerable open- 
 ing in that part of it exposed a mere skele- 
 ton of the king. Some beard remained 
 upon the chin, but there was nothing to 
 discriminate the personage contained in it. 
 
 The smaller coffin, understood to be that 
 of Queen Jane Seymour, was not touched ; 
 mere curiosity not being considered, by the 
 Prince Regent, as a sufficient motive for 
 disturbing these remains. 
 
 On examining the vault with some atten- 
 tion, it was found that the wall, at the west 
 end, had, at some period or other, been partly 
 pulled down and repaired again^ not by re- 
 gular masonry, but by fragments of stones 
 and bricks, put rudely and hastily together 
 without cement.
 
 KINO CllAHLKS I. XV 
 
 From Lord Clarendon's account, as well 
 as from Mr. Herbert's narrative of the inter- 
 ment of King Charles, it is to be inferred, 
 that the ceremony was a very hasty one, 
 performed in the presence of the Governor, 
 who had refused to allow the service accord- 
 ing" to the Book of Common Prayer to be 
 used on the occasion ; and had, probably, 
 scarcely admitted the time necessary for a 
 decent deposit of the body. It is not un- 
 likely, therefore, that the coffin of King 
 Henry VHI. had been injured by a preci- 
 pitate introduction of the coffin of King 
 Charles ; and that the Governor was not 
 under the influence of feelings, in those 
 times, which gave him any concern about 
 Royal remains, or the vault which contained 
 them. 
 
 It may be right to add, that a very small 
 mahogany coffin, covered with crimson vel- 
 vet, containing the body of an infant, had
 
 XVI THE COFFIN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 been laid upon the pall which covered King- 
 Charles. This is known to have been a 
 still-born child of the Princess George of 
 Denmark, afterwards Queen Anne. 
 
 London, April 11, 1813.
 
 ^^ 
 
 vT\; 
 
 
 
 .^
 
 AUTHENTICATION. 
 
 When the manuscript containing the above ac- 
 count was read to his late Majesty, then Prince 
 Regent, by whose command it had been drawn up, 
 the King was pleased to desire that He might 
 authenticate it, which He did, immediately pre- 
 vious to its being deposited in the British Museum, 
 by the accompanying autograph.
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 [Extract from Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion and 
 Civil Wars in England,' Vol. iii. Part I. p. 393, Oxford, 
 
 1807.] 
 
 * His body was immediately carried into a room at 
 ' Whitehall ; where he was exposed for many days 
 ' to the public view, that all men might know that 
 
 * he was not alive. And he was then embalmed, 
 ' and put into a coffin, and so carried to St. James's ; 
 ' where he likewise remained several days. They 
 ' who were qualified to order his funeral declared, 
 
 * " that he should be buried at Windsor in a decent 
 ' manner, provided that the whole expense should 
 
 * not exceed five hundred pounds." The Duke of 
 ' Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earls of 
 ' Southampton and Lindsey, who had been of his 
 ' bed-chamber, and always very faithful to him, 
 
 * desired those who governed, " that they might 
 ' have leave to perform the last duty to their dead 
 
 * master, and to wait upon him to his grave;" which, 
 ' after some pauses, they were permitted to do ; 
 
 o
 
 XX APPKNDIX. 
 
 ' with this, '' that they should not attend the corpse 
 ' out of town; since they resolved it should be 
 ' privately carried to Windsor without pomp or 
 ' noise, and then they should have timely notice, 
 
 * that, if they pleased, they might be at his inter- 
 ' ment." And accordingly it was committed to four 
 ' of those servants who had been by them appointed 
 ' to wait upon him during his imprisonment, that 
 ' they should convey the body to Windsor ; which 
 
 * they did. And it was, that night, placed in that 
 
 * chamber which had usually been his bed-cham- 
 ' ber : the next morning, it was carried into the 
 ' great hall, where it remained till the lords came ; 
 ' who arrived there in the afternoon, and imme- 
 
 * diately went to Colonel VVhitchcot, the governor of 
 
 * the castle, and showed the order they had from 
 
 * the Parliament to be present at the burial, which 
 ' he admitted : but when they desired that his 
 
 * Majesty might be buried according to the form of 
 
 * the Common Prayer Book, the Bishop of London 
 ' being present with them to officiate, he positively 
 ' and roughly refused to consent to it; and said, 
 
 * " it was not lawful, that the Common Prayer 
 ' Book was put down, and he would not suffer it to 
 
 * be used in that garrison where he commanded ;" 
 ' nor could all the reasons, persuasions, and en- 
 ' treaties, prevail with him to suffer it. Then they 
 
 * went into the church, to make choice of a place 
 
 * for burial. But when they entered into it, which
 
 APPENDIX. XXI 
 
 ' tliey had been so well acquainted with, they found 
 ' it so altered and transl'ormed^ all inscriptions, and 
 ' those landmarks pulled down, by which all men 
 
 * knew every particular place in that church, and 
 
 * such a dismal mutation over the whole, that they 
 ' knew not where they were : nor was there one old 
 ' officer that had belonged to it, or knew where our 
 ' princes had used to be interred. At last, there 
 
 * was a fellow of the town who undertook to tell 
 ' them the place where, he said, " there was a 
 ' vault, in which King Harry VIII. and Queen 
 ' Jane Seymour were interred." As near that 
 ' place as could conveniently be, they caused the 
 ' grave to be made. There the King's body was 
 ' laid, without any words, or other ceremonies than 
 ' the tears and sighs of the few beholders. Upon 
 ' the coffin was a plate of silver fixed, with these 
 
 * words only. King Charles, 1648. When the 
 ' coffin was put in, the black velvet pall that had 
 ' covered it was thrown over it, and then the earth 
 ' thrown in ; which the Governor stayed to see 
 
 * perfectly done, and then took the keys of the 
 ' church. 
 
 ' I have been the longer and the more particular 
 ' in this relation, that I may from thence take occa- 
 ' sion to mention what fell out long after, and which 
 ' administered a subject of much discourse ; in 
 ' which, according to the several humours and 
 ' fancies of men, they who were in nearest credit 
 
 o 2
 
 XXU ArPKNDIX. 
 
 ' and trust about the King underwent many very 
 
 * severe censures and reproaches, not without reflec- 
 ' tion upon the King himself. Upon tlie return 
 ' of King Charles II. with so much congratulation, 
 ' and universal joy of the people, above ten years 
 
 * after the murder of his father, it was generally 
 
 * expected that the body should be removed from 
 ' that obscure burial, and with such cerea;ony as 
 ' should be thought fit, should be solemnly depo- 
 
 * sited with his Royal ancestors in King Harry 
 ' the Seventh's chapel, in the collegiate church 
 ' at Westminster. And the King himself in- 
 ' tended nothing more, and spoke often of it, as 
 ' if it were only deferred till some circumstances 
 
 * and ceremonies in the doing it might be ad- 
 
 * justed. But, by degrees, the discourse of it 
 ' was diminished, as if it were totally laid aside 
 ' upon some reason of state, the ground whereof 
 
 * several men guessed at according to their fancies, 
 
 * and thereupon cast those reproaches upon the 
 ' statesmen as they thought reasonable, when the 
 ' reasons which were suggested by their own ima- 
 ' ginations did not satisfy their understanding. 
 ' For the satisfaction aed information of all men, I 
 ' choose in this place to explain that matter ; which, 
 ' it may be, is not known to many ; and at that 
 ' time was not, for many reasons, thought fit lo be 
 ' published. The Duke of Richmond was dead 
 ' before the King returned ; the Marquis of Hert-
 
 APPENDIX. XXllI 
 
 * ford died in a short lime after, and was seldom out 
 
 * of his lodging after his Majesty came to White- 
 
 * hall : the Earl of Southampton and the Earl of 
 ' Lindsey went to Windsor, and took with them such 
 ' of their own servants as had attended them in that 
 ' service, and as many others as they remembered 
 
 * had been then present, and were still alive ; who all 
 ' amounted to a small number ; there being, at the 
 ' time of the interment, great strictness used in 
 ' admitting any to be present whose names were 
 
 * not included in the order which the lords had 
 ' brought. In a word, the confusion they had at 
 ' that time observed to be in that church, and the 
 ' small alterations which were begun to be made 
 ' towards decency, so totally perplexed their memo- 
 ' ries, that they could not satisfy themselves in 
 
 * what place or part of the church the Royal body 
 
 * was interred : yet where any concurred upon this 
 
 * or that place, they caused the ground to be 
 ' opened at a good distance, and, upon such en- 
 
 * quiries, found no cause to believe that they were 
 ' near the place : and, upon their giving this account 
 
 * to the Kingf, the thought of that remove was laid 
 
 * aside; and the reason communicated to very few, 
 
 * for the better discountenancing further enquiry.'
 
 xxv 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 [Extract from Wood's ' Athense Oxonienses," folio edition. 
 Vol. ii. p. 703. Printed for Knaplock, Midwinter, and 
 Tonson, 1721. 
 
 ' There was a passage broke through the wall 
 ' of the Banqueting-house, by which the King 
 ' passed unto the scaffold : where, after his Majesty 
 ' had spoken, and declared publicly that he died a 
 ' Christian according to the profession of the Church 
 ' of England (the contents of which have been 
 
 * several times printed), the fatal stroke was given 
 ' by a disguised person. Mr. Herbert during this 
 
 * time was at the door leading to the scaffold^ much 
 ' lamenting ; and the Bishop coming from the 
 ' scaffold with the Royal corpse, which was imme- 
 ' diately coffined and covered with a velvet pall, he 
 ' and Mr. Herbert went with it to the back stairs 
 ' to have it embalmed. The Royal corpse being 
 ' embalmed and well coffined, and all afterwards 
 ' wrapped up in lead, and covered with a new 
 ' velvet pall, it was removed to St. James's. Where 
 ' to bury the King was the last duty remaining. 
 ' By some historians it is said the King spoke
 
 XXVI APPKNDIX. 
 
 ' something to the bishop concerning his burial. 
 
 * Mr. Herbert, both before and after the King's 
 ' death, was frequently in company with the bishop, 
 
 * and affirmed, that he never mentioned anything to 
 
 * him of the King's naming any place where he 
 ' would be buried; nor did Mr. Herbert (who con- 
 ' stantly attended his Majesty, and after his coming 
 ' to Hurst Castle was the only person in his bed- 
 ' chamber) hear him at any time declare his mind 
 ' concerning it. Nor was it in his lifetime a pro- 
 
 * per question for either of them to ask, notwith- 
 ' standing they had oftentimes the opportunity, 
 ' especially when his Majesty was bequeathing to 
 ' his royal children and friends what is formerly re- 
 ' lated. Nor did the bishop declare any thing con- 
 
 * cerning the place to Mr. Herbert, which doubt- 
 
 * less he would upon Mr, Herbert's pious care about 
 ' it ; which being duly considered, they thought no 
 ' place more fit to inter the corpse than in the 
 
 * chapel of King Henry VII., at the end of the 
 ' church of Westminster Abbey, out of whose loins 
 
 * King Charles I. was lineally extracted, &c. 
 ' Whereupon Mr. Herbert made his application to 
 ' such as were then in power for leave to bury the 
 ' King's body in the said chapel, among his an- 
 
 * cestors ; but his request was denied, for this rea- 
 
 * son, that his burying there ivould attract infinite 
 ' numbers of all sorts thither, to see where the 
 '• King was buried; ivhich, as the times then were.
 
 APi'KNDIX. XXVU 
 
 ' was judged unsafe and inconvenient. Mr. Iler- 
 ' bert acquainting the bishop with this, they then 
 ' resolved to bury the King's body in the Royal 
 ' Chapel of St. George, within the Castle of Windsor, 
 
 * both in regard that his Majesty was Sovereign of 
 ' the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and that 
 
 * several Kings had been there interred ; namely, 
 ' King Henry VI., King Edward IV., and King 
 ' Henry VIII., &c. Upon which consideration 
 
 * Mr. Herbert made his second address to the 
 ' committee of Parliament, who, after some deli- 
 ' be ration, gave him an order, bearing date the 6th 
 ' of February, 1648, authorising him and Mr. 
 
 * Anthony Miidmay to bury the King's body there, 
 ' which the jrovernor was to observe. 
 
 ' Accordingly the corpse was carried thither from 
 ' St. James's, February 7, in a hearse covered with 
 ' black velvet, drawn by six horses covered with 
 ' black cloth, in which were about a dozen gentlemen, 
 ' most of them being such that had waited upon 
 ' his Majesty atCarisbrook Castle, and other places, 
 ' since his Majesty's going from Newcastle. Mr. 
 
 * Herbert shewed the governor. Colonel Whitchcot, 
 ' the committee's order for permitting Mr. Herbert 
 ' and Mr. Miidmay to bury him, the late King, in 
 ' any place within Windsor Castle, that they should 
 ' think fit and meet. In the first place, in order 
 ' thereunto, they carried the King's body into the 
 ' Dean's house, which was hung with black, and
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ' after to his usual bedchamber within the palace. 
 ' After which they went to St. George's Chapel to 
 ' take a view thereof, and of the most fit and 
 ' honourable place for the Royal corpse to rest in. 
 ' Having taken a view, they at first thought that 
 ' the tomb-house, built by Cardinal Wolsey, woidd 
 ' be a fit place for his interment ; but that place, 
 ' though adjoining, yet being not within the Royal 
 ' Chapel, they waived it; for, if King Henry VHI. 
 
 * was buried there, (albeit to that day the particu- 
 ' lar place of his burial was unknown to any,) yet, 
 
 * in regard to his Majesty, King Chai'les I. (who 
 
 * was a real defender of the Faith, and as far from 
 ' censuring any that might be) would upon occa- 
 ' sional discourse express some dislike in King 
 
 * Henry's proceedings, in misemploying those vast 
 ' revenues, the suppressed abbies, monasteries, and 
 ' other religious houses were endowed with, and by 
 ' demolishing those many beautiful and stately 
 ' structures which both expressed the greatness of 
 ' their founders, and preserved the splendour of the 
 
 * kingdom, which might at the Reformation have in 
 ' some measure been kept up and converted to sun- 
 ' dry pious uses. 
 
 ' Upon consideration thereof, those gentlemen 
 
 * declined it, and pitched upon the vault where King 
 ' Edward IV. had been interred, being on the north 
 ' side of the choir, near the altar, that King being 
 ' one his late Majesty would oftentimes make ho-
 
 APPENDIX. XXIX 
 
 ' nourable mention of, and from whom his Majesty 
 
 * was lineally propagated. That, therefore, induced 
 
 * Mr. Herbert to give order to N. Harrison and 
 ' Henry Jackson to have that vault opened, partly 
 
 * covered with a fair large stone of touch, raised 
 ' within the arch adjoining, having a range of iron 
 ' bars gilt, curiously cut according to church work, 
 ' &c. But as they were about this work, some no- 
 
 * blemen came thither ; namely, the Duke of Rich- 
 ' mond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Lind- 
 ' sey, and with them Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, 
 ' who had licence from the Parliament to attend the 
 
 * King's body to his grave. Those gentlemen, 
 ' therefore, Herbert and Mildmay, thinking fit to 
 ' submit, and leave the choice of the place of burial 
 ' to those great persons, they in like manner viewed 
 ' the tomb-house and the choir; and one of the 
 ' Lords beating gently upon the pavement with his 
 ' staff, perceived a hollow sound; and thereupon 
 ' ordering the stones and earth to be removed, they 
 ' discovered a descent into a vault, where two coffins 
 
 * were laid near one another, the one very large, of 
 ' an antique form, and the other little. These they 
 ' supposed to be the bodies of King Henry VHL 
 ' and Queen Jane Seymour his third wife, as indeed 
 
 * they were. The velvet palls that covered their 
 ' coffins seemed fresh, though they had lain there 
 ' above one hundred years. 
 
 ' The Lords agreeing that the King's body
 
 XXX APPKNDIX. 
 
 ' should be in the same vault interred, being about 
 
 * the middle of the choir, over against the eleventh 
 ' stall upon the sovereign's side, they gave order to 
 
 * have the King's name and year he died cut in 
 ' lead ; which whilst the workmen were about, the 
 
 * Lords went out and gave Puddifant, the sexton, 
 
 * order to lock the chapel door, and not suffer any 
 ' to stay therein till further notice. The sexton did 
 
 * his best to clear the chapel ; nevertheless, Isaac, 
 ' the sexton's man, said that a foot-soldier had hid 
 
 * himself, so as he was not discerned; and being 
 ' greedy of prey, crept into the vault, and cut so 
 ' much of the velvet pall that covered the great body 
 
 * as he judged would hardly be missed, and wimbled 
 
 * also a hole through the said coffin that was largest, 
 ' probably fancying that there was semething well 
 
 * worth his adventure. The sexton at his opening 
 
 * the door espied the sacrilegious person ; who 
 ' being searched, a bone was found about him, with 
 ' which he said he would haft a knife. The Go- 
 ' vernor being therefore informed of, he gave him 
 
 * his reward ; and the Lords and others present 
 
 * were convinced that a real body was in the said 
 ' great coffin, which some before had scrupled. 
 ' The girdle or circumscription, of capital letters of 
 ' lead put about the King's coffin, had only these 
 ' words : King Charles, 1648. 
 
 * The King's body was then brought from his 
 ' bedchamber down into St. George's Hall, whence.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 * after a little stay, it was with a slow and solemn 
 
 * pace (much sorrow in most faces being then dis- 
 ' cernible) carried by gentlemen of quality in mourn- 
 
 * ing. The noblemen in mourning also held up the 
 
 * pall ; and the governor, with several gentlemen, 
 
 * officers and attendants, came after. It was then 
 ' observed, that at such time as the King's body 
 ' was brought out from St. George's Hall, the sky 
 ' was serene and clear ; but presently it began to 
 ' snow, and the snow fell so fast, that by that time 
 
 * the corpse came to the west end of the Royal 
 ' chapel, the black velvet pall was all white (the 
 
 * colour of innocency), being thick covered over with 
 
 * snow. The body being by the bearers set down 
 ' near the place of burial, the Bishop of London 
 ' stood ready, with the service-book in his hands, to 
 ' have performed his last duty to the King his 
 ' master, according to the order and form of burial 
 ' of the dead set forth in the Book of Common 
 ' Prayer ; which the Lords likewise desired ; but it 
 ' would not be suffered by Colonel Whitchcot, the 
 ' governor of the castle, by reason of the Directory to 
 ' which (said he) he and others were to he conform- 
 
 * able. Thus went the white King to his grave, in 
 ' the forty-eighth year of his age, and twenty-second 
 ' year and tenth month of his reign.'
 
 XXXlll 
 
 ORATIO IN THEATRO COLLEGII REGALIS 
 MEDICORUM LONDINENSIS, 
 
 EX HARVEII INSTITUTO, 
 
 HABITA DIE OCTOB. XVIII. AN. M.DCCC. 
 
 Vestrum omnium, Prseses dignissime, So- 
 ciique ornatissimi, neminem esse crediderim 
 qui, ingeniis studiisque hominum cognitis 
 rite et perspectis, non statim intelligat, et 
 pro comperto habeat mancam et imperfectam 
 prorsus esse medicinae artem sine Uteris et 
 philosophia. Atque hoc, arbitror, hisce 
 preesertim temporibus, iterum atque iterum 
 nobis in mentem revocandum esse, quando 
 Plebeii Philosophi banc quoque artium no- 
 biliorum principem a doctrina severiori se- 
 gregari posse opinantur, et nihil aliud pos- 
 tulare nisi experientiam (quod aiunt) promp- 
 tique animi acumen. Verum enimvero
 
 XXXIV ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 liaec ipsa experientia, haec ipsa in rebus 
 operosis animi promptitudo, num in triviis 
 quaerenda sunt denique, et nullo fere labore, 
 nullisque disciplinis comparanda? Magno 
 olim certamine Tyrones nostri ad prima 
 medicinae limina pervenerunt. Disciplinis 
 veteribus instructi, in libris versati, atque 
 hominum in omni fere literarum genere 
 eruditorum sermonibus locupletati, turn de- 
 mum banc artem suam exercere cceperunt, 
 quando alias prope omnes praelibassent. 
 Hinc factum est ut quae postea ex usu 
 didicerant, aut quae fors illis objecerat, haec 
 omnia arti medicinali tarn praesido essent 
 quam ornamento; bine factum est quoque, 
 ut splendidum et ampliorem cursum adim- 
 plere viderentur — neque aegrotantium solum 
 lectis adsiderent, sed quando otium dabatur, 
 cum optimatibus reipublicae amicitiarum 
 necessitudinem, vitaeque quotidianae com- 
 mercium habcrent. Absit, obsecro, absit
 
 ORATIO HARVEIANA. XXXV 
 
 a nobis longe longeque levis ista sive arro- 
 gantia, sive petulantia vocanda sit, quae 
 antiquam banc laudem nostram ulla alia nisi 
 antiqua ratione obtineri posse credit aut 
 conservari — Quod vero ne fiat, prohibet, ni 
 fallor, et rei ipsius intima cognitio, atque 
 eorum saltern memoria, qui suis ostenderunt 
 quam pulchra esset atque honesta medi- 
 cinae cum literis et pbilosophia conjunctio. 
 
 Etenim, quod ad literas bumaniores atti- 
 net, si recte scribendi sapere est et princi- 
 pium et fons ; — si recte sapiendi, homi- 
 num ingenia, mores pernoscere ; si recte 
 loquendi denique, quid sit facundum, quid 
 acre, quid venustum scire, id omne non ex- 
 cipit modo Medicina, verum etiam arripit 
 atque amplexatur — Quidni enim ? An qui 
 humanam mentem tarn variam, tamque mul- 
 tiplicem, orani simulatione pariter ac dis- 
 simulatione adempta, miramque istam cor- 
 poris atque animae necessitudinem videt 
 
 P
 
 XXXVl ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 indies et contemplatur; qui afFectuum vim 
 atque imperium, gegrotantium metus, adsi- 
 dentium soUicitudinem praesens contuetur, 
 non ille convenientia scit cuique tribuere? 
 An cui dolentibus vultu, vocibus, ac consilio 
 subvenire curse sit, ilium vel facundia scri- 
 bentem deseret, vel venustates ? 
 
 Quod si Philosophiae, sanss istius ac legi- 
 timse, rationem habeas, quae neque opinio- 
 nibus hominum, neque verbis tantummodo 
 commentisque continetur, sed in natura ipsa, 
 ac rerum cognitione versatur, quantum ad 
 hoc possumus quis non videt? Num mundi 
 hujus universitatem velis, rerumque mate- 
 riem explorando cognoscere ? Nihil certe 
 omnium vel ad temperiem, vel ad leges 
 naturae explicandas magis idoneum esse po- 
 test quam mira ilia ac miranda humani 
 corporis fabricatio. Num animam humanam 
 pervestiges ? Corporis, prius, formam, vires, 
 motus pernovisse curse erit. Num officia
 
 ORATIO IIARVF.IANA. XXXVll 
 
 hominum ac mores velis intelligere 1 Nihil 
 certe ad hanc rem rite percipiendam homine 
 ipso vel prius vel antiquius est. 
 
 Fuerunt itaque e. familia nostra, (quid 
 enim aut in antiquorum, aut in exterorum 
 retro eam memoriam?) qui literas huma- 
 niores, omnigenamque doctrinam, et feliciter 
 excoluerunt et ornaverunt maxume. Testor 
 LiNACRUM nostrum, qui cum in ea tem- 
 pestate prsecipue versaretur qua crassa prse- 
 cedentium saeculorum barbaries, renascen- 
 tibus in Europa Uteris, cceperat paulatim 
 exolescere, antiquam in liac Insula discipli- 
 nam instauravit, Graecarumque literarum 
 fontes obseratos et interclusos aperuit iterum 
 et patefecit. Ipse, enim, cum animum 
 suum utilissimarum ac gravissimarum rerum 
 studiis instruxisset ; philosophiamque (qua- 
 liscunque ea demum fuerat) quam Oxoniae 
 acceperat, omnibus elegantioris doctrinae 
 venustatibus apud Italos expoliverat, arc- 
 
 P2
 
 XXXVIU ORATIO IIARVEIANA. 
 
 tissimam inter medicinam ac literas cogna- 
 tionem interesse vidit, artemque rudem plus 
 satis atque deformem humanitatis preesidiis 
 excoluit et illustravit. Igitur neque Gram- 
 maticam docuisse a consilio suo alienum 
 arbitratus est, neque Grsecos vertisse ingenii 
 sui optimi indignum, dummodo cives suos 
 ad discendum excitaret, dummodo medi- 
 cinam tolleret humo et erigeret, dummodo 
 medicis daret scientiam et dignitatem. 
 
 Cum autem intellexerat probe vir pru- 
 dentissimus Florentise hospes quantum com- 
 mune societatis vinculum, quantum hominum 
 eandem artem exercentium ad literarum 
 cultum conjuncta possent consilia, in patriam 
 redux quotquot aut ingenio et eruditione 
 ornatiores, aut arte sua peritiores invenire 
 potuit, in unum gregem et quasi familiam 
 convocavit, eoque favore ac gratia usus, qua 
 apud WoLSEiuM (munificum ilium universae 
 literaturae patronum) poUebat, jure ac legi-
 
 ORATIO HARV^EIANA. XXXIX 
 
 bus consociavit, atque auctoritate regia com- 
 munivit. Ciira ejus et sapientia Civitas 
 liaec nostra et loco et institutis confirmata 
 est — ab eo cautum est, quod certe caven- 
 dum erat maxume, ne temere quis et otiose 
 fieret Medicus — ab eo cautum est porro ne 
 aegrotantibus postea conflictandum esset non 
 modo cum morbis et doloribus, sed cum per- 
 niciosissimis quoque circulatorum fraudibus, 
 et insciorum hominum audacia. 
 
 Quod felix autem faustumque fuit novse 
 reipublicae, Linacro jam mortuo, non defuit 
 alter maximis naturae prsesidiis munitus, 
 aequa in vos benevolentia, qui et dignitati 
 vestrae prospiceret, et literas jam renatas 
 indiesque novis adauctas incrementis, pari 
 studio aleret atque foveret. Caium quippe 
 impulit eadem mens iisdem disciplinis ex- 
 culta Linacri votis obsecundare sedulo^ ne- 
 cessitudinemque inter medicinam ac literas 
 auspicato jam institutam strenuo confirmare.
 
 Xl ORATIO HARVEIANA, 
 
 LiNACRi itaque vestigia per Italise Acade- 
 mias secutus uberiores ibi Grsecae literaturse 
 fructus comportavit ; et, quod sua prsecipue 
 est laus, Anatomiam Florentiae feliciter ela- 
 boratam primus in banc regionem invexit, 
 et docendo exposuit. 
 
 Parum autem Caio actum fuisse visum 
 est quod Anatomise primus apud nostrates 
 incubuerat, quod Galenum CELsuMque 
 aptis commentariis illustraverat, nisi etiam 
 Cantabrigiae suae perpetuum fundaret litera- 
 rum domicilium — ex quo quanta virorum 
 excellentium copia profluxerit, et indies 
 profluit, aliis argument© esse debet gratula- 
 tionis et glorise — Nos Caii votis cumula- 
 tissime responsum fuisse scimus, quod in 
 ista sua domo prima labra scientise admo- 
 verit Harveius ; quod intra istos suos pari- 
 etes magnus ille vir mentis vires exercuerit 
 et confirmaverit, et ad universam veritatis 
 formam amplectendam erexerit.
 
 ORATIO HARVEIANA. xH 
 
 A studio igitur umbratili, scholarumque 
 disciplinis evocatus in solem atque pulverem, 
 Harveius ad investigationem naturae totum 
 se contulit — prudentissimeque decretum ha- 
 bens nihil in rebus Anatomicis opinari, nee 
 quidquam verum credere, nisi quod aut sensu 
 percipi, aut ex certis experimentis deduci 
 atque colligi posset, tandem aliquando cir- 
 cuitum sanguinis^ praeclarissimum illud re- 
 pertum, explicuit demonstrando, totamque 
 hominis fabricationem oculis subjecit. 
 
 Quantos ex hoc admirabili invent© fructus 
 perceperit res medica, etsi gratissimum esset 
 preedicare, coram vobis tamen hodie, minus 
 insistendum censeo argumenti dignitate 
 quam rationum vi, et philosophandi me- 
 thodo. In ea, enim, quod Harveius ab 
 experimentis optimo consilio institutis, et ab 
 observationibus ad naturam veritatemque 
 factis, deductione facili, tandem judicium 
 tulerit, et sententiam proposuerit ; in ea,
 
 Xlii ORATIO HARVElAN'A. 
 
 itiquam, quid nisi Verulamii argumentandi 
 rationem praeoccupatam conspicimus et prse- 
 monitam ? quid nisi doctrinam illam, quam 
 Posteri perfectam prorsus, atque omnibus 
 numeris absolutam esse decreverunt, ex- 
 emplo comprobatam ? 
 
 Atque equidem quam omni ex parte ne- 
 cessarium fuerit novam in Physicis ratio- 
 cinandi disciplinam instituisse, sanioremque 
 de rerum veritate judicandi facultatem ex- 
 ercere, argumentum est instar omnium in- 
 vidia qua Harveii laboribus undequaque 
 obtrectatum fuit. Medici quippe eo tem- 
 pore in antiquorum scriptis evolvendis om- 
 nino intenti, nihil aut ad usum accommoda- 
 tum aut etiam fide dignum existimabant 
 nisi quod ex Galeni libris expromendum 
 esset — Cum vero de veritate inventi Har- 
 veiani nihil omnino dubitari posset, et se- 
 quentis aevi industria cordis, viscerumque, 
 et cerebri structura penitius explorata esset,
 
 ORATIO HARVEIANA. xliii 
 
 eandem demum philosophandi normam qua 
 in explicando corpore liumano Harveius 
 erat usus, in morbis examinandis adhibuit 
 Sydenham us. Observationes igitur sapi- 
 entis illius medici non ex opinionum com- 
 mentis confictse sunt, non ex ineptiis scho- 
 larum conflatse, sed ex ipso naturse fonte 
 derivatse — Quoties, autem, aegrotantium res 
 in medium proferre illi libuit, morborumque 
 cursus describere, adeo sincere omnia, adeo 
 exquisite ante oculos posuit, ut ipsi lan- 
 guentibus interesse atque assidere, ipsi 
 fovere deficientes, ipsi remedia praecipere 
 videamur. 
 
 SrDENHAMi vestigiis institit Joannes 
 Freind, philosophus si quis alius, idemque 
 egregie, et prseter cseteros literis imbutus. 
 Huic viro laudi fuit illam attractionis vim 
 quam in grandiore corporum ccelestium mole 
 perspexerat Newtonus, summo cum judicio 
 rebus Chemicis accommodasse, et quicquid
 
 xliv ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 in theoria perplexum olim erat et obscurum 
 legibus Newtonianis simplicissime expe- 
 diisse. Tantaiii interea habuit doctrinae va- 
 rietatem atque copiam, ut earum disciplina- 
 rum, quse (ut cum Celso loquar) ' quamvis 
 non faciunt Medicum, aptiorem tamen me- 
 dicinae reddunt,' nullam non juvenis adhuc 
 excoluisset et illustrasset — quas autem in 
 medicinse exercitatione maturior setas et 
 artis usus comprobaverat, eas omnes palam 
 fecit HippocRATiCA fide et elegantia. — ^At 
 neque in sylvis Academi solum philosophiae 
 studiis incubuit, at neque in otio et tranquil- 
 litate quicquid apud Graecos opinionum dis- 
 crepantiis involutum fuerat, quicquid apud 
 Arabas obscurum aut latius diffusum eno- 
 davit ille et explicuit, sed in maximis tem- 
 porum angustiis, sed in asperitatibus rerum 
 obsecutus est studiis suis, et quae secundas 
 res ornaverant, literae adversis perfugium et 
 solatium praebuere.
 
 ORATIO HARVEIANA. xlv 
 
 Et profecto in Medicinse atque Scientiae 
 damnum cessisset Medici omni laude cumu- 
 lati mors immatura, nisi consiliorum Socio, 
 eandem gloriae viam prementi contigisset 
 indoles in medicinam apprime apta et con- 
 formata, acerrima studia, maximus usus. 
 Meadius equidem natus fuisse videtnr in 
 universae doctrines emolumentum. Tanta illi 
 fait medendi peritia, tantus vitae splendor 
 et celebritas famse, ut exterorum pariter 
 atque suorum civium omnium oculos in se 
 converteret, et quicunque vel scientiam vel 
 sanitatem quaerebant, ad ilium universi con- 
 fugerent, in illo spes omnes reponerent. 
 Videre videor sapientem senem doctissimo- 
 rum hospitum frequentia circumfusum, de 
 maximis et gravissimis quaestionibus pulchre 
 disserentem, et veluti Platonem in Gymnasio 
 conferendo docentem. Nimirum ille, Socii^ 
 artis vestrae splendorem adauxit magnopere 
 et amplificavit, et dignitatis patrimonium
 
 xlvi ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 reliquit, et exemplar vitse morumque dignum 
 maxume quod vos ipsi moribus vestris ex- 
 primatis. 
 
 Jam vero naturali quodam Orationis cursu 
 ad nostra fere tempora pervenimus ; tem- 
 pora, profecto, quae, utcunque aliis ex par- 
 tibuSj iniquitatibus rerum atque hominum 
 ineptiis satis, et plusquam satis, laborare 
 videantur, Medicinae tamen simplicis istius 
 atque legitimae veterem dignitatem non im- 
 niinuerunt. Habuimus certe vel nostris 
 oculis obversatos, immo habemus etiamnum, 
 de quibus, sive ingenii acumen, sive litera- 
 rum copiam intueamur^ summo jure gloriari 
 possumus. Etenim, ut ad eum me conver- 
 tam quern intra triennium desideravimus, 
 ecquis erat unquam scientia morborum lo- 
 cupletatus magis, vel magis curatione exer- 
 citatus ; ecquis erat unquam qui suavi ilia 
 sermonis et morum humanitate, quae in ipso 
 remediorum loco haberi potest, ecquis erat
 
 ORATIO HARVKIANA. xlvii 
 
 unquam qui Warrenum superabat? Erat 
 illi ingenii vis maxuma, perceptio et com- 
 prehensio celerrima, judicium acre, memoria 
 perceptorum tenacissima. MeministiSj Socii, 
 quam subtiliter, et uno quasi intuitu res 
 omnes segrotantium perspiceret penitus et 
 intelligeret ! in interrogando quam aptus 
 esset et opportunus, quam promptus in ex- 
 pediendo ! Omnia etenim artis subsidia 
 statim illi in mentem veniebant, et nihil ei 
 novunij nihil inauditum videbatur. — In ea 
 autem facultate qua consolamur afHictos, et 
 deducimus perterritos a timore, qua lan- 
 guidos incitamus, et erigimus depresses, 
 omnium Medicorum facile princeps fuit ; et 
 si qui medicamentis non cessissent dolores^ 
 permulcebat eos, et consopiebat hortationi- 
 bus et alloquio. 
 
 stetit urna paulum 
 
 Sicca, dum grato Danai puellas 
 
 Carmine mulcet. HoR. 
 
 Verum ea est quodammodo artis nostras
 
 xlviii ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 conditio, ut Medicus, quamvis sit eruditus, 
 quamvis sit acer et acutus in cogitando, 
 quamvis sit ad prsecipiendum expeditus, si 
 fuerit idem in moribus ac voluntatibus ci- 
 vium suonim hospes, parum ei proderit 
 oleum operamque inter calamos et scrinia 
 consumpsisse. Warrenus autem in omni 
 vitae et studiorum decursu, si quis un- 
 quam alius, Pallade dextra usus est, atque 
 omnium quibuscum rem agebat mentes sen- 
 susque gustavit ; et quid sentirent, quid vel- 
 lent, quid opinarentur, quid expectarent ar- 
 ripuit, percepit, novit. Tantam denique 
 morum comitatem et facilitatem habuit, ut 
 nemo eo semel usus esset Medico, quin so- 
 cium voluerit et amicum. 
 
 Atque hic loci, pro more mihi liceret 
 Orationi hodiernse finem facere ; quando 
 vero unde initia coeperim in memoriam re- 
 voco; quando non modo honestam illam 
 mecum reputo, sed necessariam fere medi-
 
 ORATIO HARVEIANA. xl 
 
 IX 
 
 cinas cum Uteris et philosophiu conjunctio- 
 nem, nequeo Illustrissimum Virum* prse- 
 termittere, qui vivo exemplari suo ad majora 
 nos provocat atque incendit. Vidistis eum 
 nuperrime summum apud vos magistratam 
 summa cum laude tenentem ; et dum eo 
 munere fungebatur, novistis Pharmacopceiae 
 renovandae quam totum se dederit. — Audi- 
 vistis eum, hac ipsa ex cathedra, incorrupta 
 Romanae dictionis sanitate, et eloquentia 
 Ciceroniaiiae cetatis non indigna, nostrorum 
 Medicorum aeterna statuere monumenta. 
 Scripta ejus in manibus atque in deliciis 
 habetis, quae sive rei propositae explicatio- 
 nem, et, quae vera dicitur, Philosophiam 
 spectes, sive verborum pondera et venus- 
 tates, inter pulcherrima collocanda sunt, ne 
 dicam Medicinae solum, sed universse eru- 
 ditionis ornamenta. Inter alia testari licet 
 
 * Geors;inm Baker, Raronetuni.
 
 1 ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 libelliim egregie scriptum de Catarrho et 
 Dysenteria, morbis ejusdem anni epidemicis 
 — et etiam Dissertationes* illas de Colica 
 Pictonica — in quibus singularis morbi his- 
 toria ab omni fere antiquitate ad hsec usque 
 tempora deducitur, et ejus causa non nisi 
 simplex et una esse monstratur. At mitto 
 plura, et mori Antiquorum obsequor, qui 
 non nisi Solis occasu Heroibus suis sacra 
 faciebant. 
 
 Cum autem de virtute nondum ex oculis 
 sublata apud nos agitur, ecquis est, Audi- 
 tores, cui non mentem statim subeat Vir f 
 ille egregius, multisque nominibus colendus, 
 .qui spatio vitae ultra communera vivendi 
 conditionem protracto, et eequalibus fere su- 
 perstes nee ingenio suo acri et acuto, nee 
 subtili judicio, nee rerum memorise, nee 
 
 * Vide Acta Coll. Medic. 
 + Gulielmus Heberden, anno aetatis fer^ nonagesimo.
 
 OUATH) HARVETANA. ll 
 
 amori literarum, nee denique pietati in banc 
 domum etiamnum siiperfuit? — Ille, nimirum, 
 cui artem exercenti Medicorum gens adsur- 
 gebat omnis — quern omnes in antiqua lite- 
 ratura versati imprimis habent — quem Phy- 
 sici agnoscunt suum. Talem virum et vivere, 
 et valere, et nostrum esse nobismet gratulari 
 licet. Quid memorem Acta CoUegii Medi- 
 corum (nescio quo malo fato intermissa) ipso 
 auctore primum instituta esse, ipso duce in- 
 cepta? Aut quid collaudem aureas istas 
 observationes, non aliunde quam ex natura 
 et experimento haustas, quas ille in paginas 
 istas, tanquam in commune medicinse sera- 
 rium conjecit? Sed me reprimo, ne rei 
 captus dulcedine, in area tarn late patenti 
 nimis ultra terminum excurram. 
 
 Valeas, itaque, fortunate Senex ! otioque 
 literato, et doctorum hominum colloquiis, et 
 vitse tuse anteactae recordatione diu per- 
 
 Q
 
 lii OllATIO HAUVEIANA. 
 
 friiaris ! iHsigne Medicis exemplnm relictu- 
 rus, amplam dicendi materiem Oratori. 
 
 Deficeret vero prius patientia vestra quam 
 hodierna Oratio, si in latiori campo spatiari 
 vellem, eosque singillatim complecti qui 
 merendo vos memores sui fecerunt ; qui 
 ad artem medicam, qua egregie praestabant, 
 literas eas omnes reconditiores, et ea hu- 
 manitatis studia adjunxerunt, quae hominem 
 ingenuum ornare possunt, quibus denique 
 acceptum referendum est quod salutaris haec 
 Professio, quae apud exteros vix homine li- 
 berali digna habetur, in Anglia nondum evi- 
 luerit. Populare arbitrium in famara et 
 fortunas Medicorum dominatum esse, et fa- 
 vorem publicum indignis non raro conti- 
 gisse jam olim questus est Hippocrates ; 
 eidem artis conditioni apud sues indoluit 
 Galen us. Profecto, Socii ornatissimi, si isti 
 Patres medicinse in vivis forent, haec nostra
 
 ORATIO HAUVEIANA. Ijii 
 
 tempora ab antiquis non prorsus discrepare 
 agnoscerent ultro et testarentur — neque 
 enim quemquam vestrum latet homunciones 
 quosdam nee doctos nee eductos libere, 
 etiam illotis manibus, medicinse altaria tan- 
 gere ausos esse, et stupore vulgi factos no- 
 biles, rapido cursu pervenisse ad gratiam, 
 ad famam, ad amplitudinem. Ita inauspi- 
 cato fit, ut ingenio rite nutrito, multiplici 
 remm cognitione, probitate, et modestia 
 priorera aliquando sedem teneant frons per- 
 fricta, sedulitas, obsequium, assentatio. Sed 
 de his mentem avertere liceat, et reipublicae 
 LiNACRi laudare fortunas, quae civibus jam 
 nunc abundet quales ipse sibi successores 
 voluisset — Vos pergite in ista quam insti- 
 tuistis via ; pergite artem vestram diligentia 
 excolere, tueri auctoritate, ornare moribus — 
 nee satis sit vobis hoereditatem a majoribus 
 acceptam posteris integram et incontamina- 
 
 Q2
 
 liv ORATIO HARVEIANA. 
 
 tarn tradere, nisi et detis operam ut per vos 
 ipsos locupletentur Posteri. 
 
 Oro, denique, vos et obtestor, ut fixum 
 animo et quasi insculptum habeatis medici- 
 nam liberalem una cum literis renatam esse, 
 nee nisi cum literis interituram.
 
 ORATIO 
 
 IN COLLEGII REG A LIS MEDICORUM 
 LONDINENSIS ^DIBUS NOVIS 
 
 HABITA DIE DEDICATIOMS, JUNII XXV. M.DCCC.XXV. 
 
 Etsi non vereor, Socii, ut vobis hoc festo 
 die satisfaciam, quippe qui me tam benigno 
 semper soliti sitis animo amplecti; quique 
 operam curamque meam, qualescunque ese 
 demum fuerint, in rebus vestris adminis- 
 trandis tam comiter omni tempore accepe- 
 ritis; cum me tamen taiita doctorum Hos- 
 pitum frequentia circumfusum video — cum 
 tot apud nos conspicio utriusque Senatus 
 lumina, tot publici consilii Atictores, tot 
 Regiee prosapise Principes — atque, hos inter, 
 illustrissimum ilium Principem, rei militaris 
 nostras prsesidinra et decus, — pertimescere 
 me, confiteor, et parum abesse, quin me
 
 Ivi ORATIO. 
 
 muneris hodie suscepti poeniteat. Qua ni- 
 mirum ratione, dicendo aliquid proferam 
 eorum auribus et judicio dignum, qui, in 
 maximis Imperii negotiis versati_, inter elo- 
 quentissimos in curia eloquentise palmam 
 facile ferant ? Quomodo eorum pertrectem 
 animoSj aut conciliem nobis eos, qui, etsi 
 prima labra admoverint istis iisdem scientiaB 
 fontibus, quibus et nosmetipsi in alma Aca- 
 demia proluimus, ad majora tamen et ad 
 altiora se continuo accinxerint, et nihil ultra, 
 in omni vitae et studiorum decursu, aut com- 
 mune nobiscum aut cognatum habuerint? 
 Quod sperandum tamen asset ab ista benig- 
 nitate, quae honesti nihil ac liberalis a se 
 alienum putat, id hodie, Optimates, voluntas 
 in nos vestra comprobavit ; et ex hoc magno 
 illustrium virorum conventii plane intelligere 
 licet, quanti faciant illi utilissimam et anti- 
 quissimam hanc artem nostram, et quanta 
 earn benevolentia, quanto favore prosequi 
 velint.
 
 ORATIO. Ivil 
 
 Audacter iafitur et liilari voce jzratulor 
 vobis, Socii, quod hocce templum Apolliiiis 
 dignum institutis et arte vestra, dignum An- 
 tecessoribus vestris, dignum hac illustri Pro- 
 cerum corona refecistis, — quod e colluvione 
 et tenebris emersi, tandem aliquando in luce 
 iterum et in splendore versamini. 
 
 Probe norant Majores nostri, quam omni 
 ex parte necessarium esset, Domum suam, 
 unde procederent in publicum auctoritatis 
 signa, in urbana frequentia, in congressione 
 liominum, et in oculis civium posuisse. 
 Jacta sunt igitur fundamenta Trojse nostrae, 
 (quam, temporum ratione et inclinatione 
 ducti, non sine Diis Penatibus tamen, reli- 
 quimus,) ea amplitudine et dignitate, quibus 
 arx et preesidium publicse salutis esse debe- 
 rent. Immo, ita jacta sunt a viris prudentis- 
 simis, ut, dum necessitatibus rerum suarum 
 commode et eleganter inservirent, et jucun- 
 dissimae isti Sociorum convictioni satisface-
 
 Iviii oiiATio. 
 
 rent, voluntatein eaclem et reverentiam po- 
 puli sibi viridicareiit. Jacta sunt autem et 
 auspicato et temporibus oequis. Quippe 
 civilis belli molestiis et tempestatibus suc- 
 cesserat niodo Pax ; et Pacis coniites Otiique 
 sociee sunt Artes liberales. Medicina igitur, 
 quae jam inde ab setate Linacri, necessitu- 
 dinem cum litteris arctissimam habuerat, 
 philosophiam quoque turn demum amplexa, 
 scientise dignitatem adepta erat. Circuitum 
 etenim sanguinis aliquot ante annos detex- 
 erat et demonstraverat Hauveils ista ipsa 
 pliiiosophandi methodo, quam solam esse 
 sanam et sinceram docuerat Verulamus, pos- 
 teri autem perfectam prorsus atque omnibus 
 numeris absolutam esse decreverunt. 
 
 Quantum contulerit ad philosophise istius, 
 in qua de Natura disputatur, studium inci- 
 tandum admirabilis humani corporis fabri- 
 catio adeo felici solertia patefacta et exposita, 
 non necesse est hodie dicere. Quod nobis
 
 OKATIO. 
 
 lix 
 
 certe rebusque nostris supra omnia fclix 
 tkustunique fuit, co tempore quotquot essent 
 ill Pliysicis subtilissimi, qiiotquot in rerum 
 causis exponenclis exercitatissimi, ii Regie 
 hortatu coierant, et in inclytam istam Socie- 
 tatem cooptabantur, e qua, ceu fonte perenni, 
 profluxit (et, Prseside isto eximio duce atque 
 auspice, profluit indies, atque in omne porro 
 sevum profluxura est) omnigena Scientia, et 
 quicquid ad artium incrementa, aut ad vitae 
 cultioris utilitatem possit conferre. 
 
 Nee sane mirandum est, Socii, quoniam 
 cum hoc genere philosopliiae mugnum liabet 
 familiaritatem Medicina, non minimam par- 
 tem eo-reoiae istius Societatis medicam fuisse 
 artem professos. Sumere autem vobis su- 
 perbiam licet, quod vestri fueruat Entii, 
 Cronii, Scarburii, Glissonii (quorum ut erat 
 quisque suae artis peritissimus, ita naturae 
 iiiterpretandce scientissimus) ; quod vestri 
 sunt liodie, qui Chemiam altius scrutentur
 
 Ix OR ATI O. 
 
 et perspiciant, " qui errantium stellarum 
 cursus, progressioneSj institiones " feliciter 
 notent et intelligant. 
 
 Hac opportunitate temporis antiquse nos- 
 trae conditse sunt eedes ; quse ut sit '" eadem 
 nostrse fortuna Domus," faxit Deus Optimus 
 Maximus ! 
 
 Nee temere et inconsulto in his precibus 
 spem ponimus, quoniam nostra hsec Res- 
 publica optimis temperata est legibus et in- 
 stitutis, et in omni recto studio atque hu- 
 manitate versamur. Neque enim quemquam 
 prius civitate nostra donamus, quam disci- 
 plinis iis veteribus (quae, etsi non faciunt 
 medicum,aptioremtamen Medicinae reddunt) 
 instructus fuerit ; quam eruditione, viro li- 
 bero digna, penitus fuerit imbutus ; quam 
 quid medicum deceat, quid omni ex parte 
 pulchrum sit et honestum, didicerit. Longe 
 enim aliud est in Materia Medica exercita- 
 tum esse, aliud mederi.
 
 OR A TIC). Ixi 
 
 Nec majore studio, nee spe uberiore, nee 
 amplioribus aut ad gratiam aut ad digni- 
 tatem prsemiis commoti, hoc opus suseepe- 
 runt Antecessores nostri, quam quibus et 
 nos hodierno die. Quidni enim? Pecuniam 
 a prudentissimis et integerrimis Testamenti 
 Radcliviani Curatoribus accepimus, (" non 
 parca manu sufFectam, sed libera,") quali 
 ipse Radclivius munificentissimus, si in vivis 
 foret, civibus suis, quos dilexit, quibus ipse 
 vicissim in deliciis fuit, largiendo suppedi- 
 tasset. O fortunatum Radclivium, et, si- 
 quis alius, invidendum! cujus virtuti licuerit 
 et in vita et in morte humano generi bene- 
 facere. 
 
 Nec vestro caruimus patrocinio, Illustres 
 publici consilii Auctores ! Quippe vos_, fe- 
 licis Imjusce gentis famse consulentes, et 
 saluti vitseque civium prospicientes, non 
 alienum a prudentia aut a dignitate vestia 
 duxistis, nostris votis respondere, nostris re-
 
 Ixii ORATIO. 
 
 bus opitulari. Quod igitur ab optimo Rege 
 situm, ubi hoc artis nostras theatrum, idem- 
 que bonarum litterarum domicilium, statue- 
 remus, vestram operam, favorem vestrum 
 apud Priiicipeiii interpoiiendo, procuravistis ; 
 summas, quas possumus, gratias agimus, 
 summas semper acturi, — dum heec mcenia 
 durando perstabunt, dum salutaris li33C pro- 
 fessio laudem apud Britamios et observaii- 
 tiam liabebit. 
 
 Sed, quod maximum est, Socii, et supra 
 oiuiila dona, quemcunque Vos in Prsesidis 
 locum elegeritis, Rex eum statim Regiorum 
 Medicorum ordini adscribi jussit; sacram 
 scilicet suam valetudinem vestris consiliis, 
 vestrag curse tuendam commissurus. 
 
 Si quis hujus beneficii gratiam institutis 
 nostris, et disciplinis iis deberi putet, quas 
 Majorum nostrorum sapientia, ad Medici- 
 nani rite et decore exercendam necessarias 
 esse statuit; nae is nee inepte neque sine
 
 ORATio. Ixiii 
 
 consiliojudicat. Recordamini etenim, Socii, 
 quanta inter bella, quantam inter victoria- 
 rum messem, pacis studia, doctrinam, et 
 litteras humaniores Pater Patriee foverit 
 atque aluerit ; quali benignitate studiis iis 
 deditos acceperit ; quali lionore memoriam 
 eorum prosecutus sit, qui vitam per artes 
 inventas excoluere. 
 
 At quanti Rex bonus ille noster litteras 
 faciat, argumentum est instar omnium Bib- 
 liotheca ista eximia a venerando Patre com- 
 parata, quam in jus Populi cedere voluit. 
 O magnificum et vere Regium munus ! et a 
 Te Principe uno post tot saecula publicae 
 utilitati concessum ! O sapienter factum ! 
 Probe etenim noras, quantum illud ^TXHS 
 lATPEION, quod Bibliothecae magni illius 
 iEgypti Regis inscriptum fuit, ad confor- 
 mandas hominum mentes animosque valeat ; 
 quantum nos ad virtutem percipiendam co- 
 lendamque moveant illustrium virorum ima-
 
 Ixiv OUATIO 
 
 gines, ab omni vetustate litteris proditae ; 
 quantum ad leges et instituta nostra pernos- 
 cenda, et ad gestimandam veram istam liber- 
 tatem nostram ab illis oriundam, conferat 
 veterum rerum publicarum contemplatio ; 
 quantum denique homini digne de seipso 
 sentire, digne agere, suadeat scientia. 
 
 Te igitur, augustissime Rex ! quod in 
 periculosissimis temporibus totam fere Eu- 
 ropam, cum diuturno et difficili bello pre- 
 meretur ab acerrimo hoste, non debellando 
 nisi a nostro Duce numquam victo, in liber- 
 tatem et tranquillitatem vindicaveris, et, 
 quantum caeteris gentibus militari gloria 
 prsestant, tantum tuos in artibus quoque 
 Pacis antecellere volueris, — Te omni bene- 
 volentia complectimur, — Te grato semper 
 animo colemus, — Te admirabimur, — Te ama- 
 bimus, — nee de Tuis unquam laudibus pos- 
 teri conticescent. 
 
 Quodcunque Antecessoribus nostris visum
 
 ORATIO. IxV 
 
 fuerit in aedificanda Domo sua moliri, id 
 omne nos sedulo conati sumus in reficienda. 
 Habueruntne igitur illi conclave, ubi Cen- 
 sores pro auctoritate et dignitate sua con- 
 gredi possent ? Habemus. Num Theatrum 
 extrui voluerunt, in quo solennes eorum, 
 qui merendo nos memores sui fecerint, lau- 
 dationes instaurare possent ; aut in quo, si 
 placuisset, medicinse studiosos instituerent 
 docendo ? Nos etiam extruximus ; quan- 
 quarn nostrum est potius de doctis judicium 
 facere, quam indoctos docere. An Ccena- 
 culum adparaverunt, ubi corpus commode 
 et jucunde reficerent Socii ; et Bibliothecam 
 aptam et concinnam, ubi, negotiis atque 
 urbano opere defessi, vacui cura ac labore, 
 liberge animi remissioni indulgerent ? Ad- 
 paravimus nos quoque. Quin vos dicite, 
 Illustrissimi Auditores, (vos etenim per- 
 spexistis,) annonlibri, imagines, quodcunque
 
 Ixvi ORATIO. 
 
 denique sit Atticum, apud nos etiam Attice 
 sint adservata. 
 
 Provisum est porro nobis, quod Anteces- 
 soribus nostris admodum deerat, Museum ; 
 in quo reponamus quicquid, ex Anatomia 
 petitum, humanae fabricationis structuram, 
 morbo laesam vitiatamque, explicet. Quan- 
 tum medicinse inservire possint (et certe 
 plurimum possunt) rationes ex Anatomiae 
 fontibus depromptse,dudum perceperat Har- 
 veius: et, si vitas ejus utilissimae parcere 
 voluisset Deus O. M., non dubitandum est 
 quin Ipse eadem fundamenta supellectilis 
 Anatomicae posuisset, quae nuperrime summa 
 cum judicii et liberalitatis laude posuit Mat- 
 thseus Baillie. 
 
 In hoc dilecto nomine fas sit mihi com- 
 morari paulum, et dolere, quod huic excel- 
 lenti viro, tot annos in eadem nostra ilia la- 
 boriosissima vitae ratione comiti, socio, amico,
 
 ORATio. Ixvii 
 
 singular! in hanc domum pietate, hisce co- 
 mitiis celebrioribus, huic solemnitati, huic 
 illustrissimorum et nobilissimorum Hospitum 
 coetui non licuerit interesse ; quanquam eum 
 famae satis diu vixisse scio, seternae felicitati, 
 quod humillime spero, bene satis. Et enim, 
 patre usus pio, a prima usque adolescentia 
 in explorando corpore humano fuerat versa- 
 tissimus ; et ex hac studiorum ratione sapi- 
 entiam et potentiam Dei maxima admira- 
 tione, summa veneratione contemplatus est. 
 Postea vero, cum ad medicinam exercendam 
 se accinxisset, facile sensit, quantulum cor- 
 pori, morbis et aegra valetudine laboranti, 
 subventurus esset Medicus, nisi qui animi 
 quoque motus, vires, adfectus, perciperet : 
 animi, scilicet, unius et ejusdem cum cor- 
 pore, tamen diversi, — consociati cum illo, 
 sed distincti, — in ejus compagibus inclusi et 
 involuti, nihilominus tamen liberi — immor- 
 
 R
 
 Ixviii ORATIO. 
 
 tale quid perpetuo praesentientis atque prse- 
 monentis, et illud futurum cupientis, tamen 
 et metuentis. Ab his contemplationibus 
 potentise ac majestatis divinae ad debitum 
 numini cultum preestandum incitatus est, ad 
 fidem in Deo habendam, et ad totum se ei 
 submittendum. Hinc pia ilia vivendi regula, 
 hinc spectata integritas. Hinc illi omnia 
 graviter, humaniter, amabiliter mos erat co- 
 gitare ; — hinc, quod cogitaverat, planissime 
 ac verissime dicere ; — hinc nihil alteri facere, 
 quod sibi faciendum nollet ; — hinc candor, 
 caritas ; — sed me reprimo ; quanquam baud 
 vereor, Optimates, ne vobis in praestantis- 
 simi hujus viri laudibus longior fuisse vi- 
 dear : quippe vestrum quamplurimi sanita- 
 tem ejus judicio et consiliis acceptam refertis. 
 Nee timeo, ne mihi succenseatis, Socii, quod 
 eum his saltern accumulaverim donis, qui 
 tantum sibi vestrum omnium amorem vivus
 
 ORATIO. 
 
 Ixix 
 
 conciliaverit; qui industrise, benevolentise, 
 sanctitatis, iiinocentise exemplum (quod 
 omnes utinam imitemur !) reliquerit. 
 
 Vos, autem, illustres Animi ! qui dudum, 
 corporis vinculis soluti, pia atque aeterna 
 pace fruimini, — Vos, Linacer, Cai, Harvei, 
 Radclivij (quorum recordatio hoc festo die 
 suavior apud nos et jucundior superest,) tes- 
 tor Vos, vestra sapientia fretos, vestris usos 
 consiliis, vestrum hoc opus nos refecisse. 
 Vos, olim, Greecarum litterarum lumen ab 
 Italia in patriam transtulistis. Vos primi 
 Medicos, doctos et eductos libere, in civi- 
 tatem hanc nostram bene moratam et legibus 
 constitutam collegistis. Vos medicinam, ex- 
 plicato sanguinis revolubili cursu, rationalem 
 fecistis, atque optimis hominum ingeniis 
 dignam. Sic Artis Medicee suus indies 
 crevit honos ; sic domus jyitiqua stetit in- 
 concussa. 
 
 Nostrum erit haereditatem a vobis accep-
 
 IxX ORATIO. 
 
 tam successoribus nostris integram et incoii- 
 taminatam tradere : Nostrum erit de Medi- 
 cina, de Litteris, de Religione bene mereri. 
 Sic nova hsec Domus stabit perpetua ; Sic 
 nostrum quoque, et hujusce diei, grata et 
 honoranda delabetur ad posteros memoria. 
 
 Printed by VV. Clow£s, Duke-street, Lambeth.
 
 INTERESTING RELICS. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE STANDARD. 
 
 Sir, — When spending the winter of '71 in Wind- 
 sor, I frequently had a chat with old " Wise," the 
 well-known verger of St. George's, and I well re- 
 member his mentioning to me ■ that he was the 
 possessor of two very interesting and valuable 
 relics. One was a portion of the beard of the 
 unfortunate King Charles, whose decapitated head, 
 at the time of the disinterment of the body some 
 years previously, he had, it appears, held for some 
 time in his hands, and had then taken the oppor- 
 tunity of (sacrilegiously) plucking off a portion of the 
 beard. The other was, he asserted, a ring which 
 had belonged to Henry VIII., of evil memory; but 
 how it had come into his possession he did not 
 reveal. In looking through the fifth volume of 
 Miss Strickland's " Queens," however, I lately 
 stumbled on the following passage (page 93, *' Life 
 of Catherine Parr ") : — " The King being carried 
 to Windsor to be buried, stood all night among the 
 broken walls of Sion, and there, the leaden coflBn 
 being cleft by the shaking of the carriage, the 
 pavement of the church was wetted with Henry's 
 blood. In the morning came plummers to solder 
 the coflBn, under whose feet — I tremble while I write 
 it (says the author)— was suddenly seen a dog creep- 
 ing and lapping up the King's blood. If you ask 
 how I know this, I answer, William Greville, who 
 could scarcely drive the dog away, told me, and so 
 did the plummer." 
 
 Doubtless the ring was purlomed from the finger 
 of the dead King at the time, and being probably 
 concealed for years, was finally sold, and came at 
 last into the old verger's possession. The first of 
 these relics. I feel certain that I recognised among 
 the treasures in the " Tudor Collection " some years 
 back, and I have always felt the greatest curiosity 
 to ascertain the ultimate fate of King Henry's ring. 
 Possibly one of your many readers might be able 
 kindly to gratify my wish. 
 
 I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 M. M. G.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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