i J |||||'il| f i| S |'ll| V illlM l | C mtl, F P nNIA ' ? AN DIEGO 
 
 3 1822 00230 4459 
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM 
 
 AND THE FOUNDATION OF 
 
 THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 
 
 ON 
 October 8th, 1917, 
 
 BY 
 
 Sm StCLAIR THOMSON, 
 
 M.D., F.R.C.P. LOND., F.R.C.S. ENG. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C. 
 
 PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY. 
 
 1918. 
 
 Price Two Shillings and Sixpence.


 
 {Frontispiece. ) 
 
 Fig. 1.— John Coakley Lettsom, M.I)., F.R.s. 
 (From a wax medallion in the possession of Mr. John El. A. Ellii 
 ereat-great-ffrandson oi Dr. Lettsom.)
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTS 
 
 AND THE FOUNDATION OK 
 
 THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 BEING THE 
 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BKl-'OKK 
 
 . THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 
 
 ON 
 
 October 8th, 1917, 
 
 BY 
 
 Sir StCLAIE THOMSON, 
 
 M.D , F.R.C.P. LOND., F.R.C.S. ENG. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C. 
 
 PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY. 
 
 1918. 
 
 Price Tiro Shillings and Sixpence.
 
 October 8th, 1917. 
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM 
 
 AND THE FOUNDATION OF 
 
 THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Presidential Address. 
 
 By Sir StClair Thomson, M.D., E.R.C.P. Lorid., 
 F.R.C.S. Eng. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Fellows of the Medical Society and Visitors, — Some one 
 has said that there are two happy periods in the life of a President ; 
 the first being when he assumes the dignity of the Chair, and the 
 second when he resigns the cares of office. Personally, I feel that 
 fate will cheat me of both these moments, for I am sure that with 
 the kind and efficient help of the Secretaries and Registrar, and the 
 wise and loyal guidance of the Council, we will have such a successful 
 session that I will part with the Presidency with regret. As to the 
 promised happy moment of this evening, I view it with dismay. 
 Many distinguished Presidents have occupied this office since the 
 foundation of the Society in 1773. In addition to the well-known 
 names of physicians, surgeons, and gynaecologists inscribed on our 
 walls, I notice those of colleagues who have devoted themselves 
 to nervous and mental diseases, while in Erasmus Wilson in 1878, 
 Brudenell Carter in 1886, and William Dalby in 1894, the 
 specialities of dermatology, ophthalmology and otology have been 
 recognised. I feel that the honour of being elected to this 
 honourable and responsible office has fallen to my lot as a repre- 
 
 a 2
 
 4 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 sentative of laryngology, a comparatively young speciality and 
 for a long time the Cinderella of the sisterhood. On behalf of my 
 co-workers in this department of practice I heartily thank the 
 Society for this first recognition, and I deeply appreciate my good 
 fortune in receiving the highest honour which can he bestowed by 
 one's Fellows in this, the oldest of the Medical Societies of London. 
 I naturally turned to our Eules, the history of our Foundation, 
 and the life of our Founder to guide me in the act of presiding. 
 The outstanding personality of the Medical Society is, and always 
 must be, John Coakley Lettsom. I have found the records of his 
 life so interesting that I trust I may be forgiven if I occupy part 
 of this evening in trying to convey the impression I obtained 
 of him during my researches into the duties of the office of 
 President. 
 
 Lettsom's Early Life. 
 
 John Coakley Lettsom was born in 1744 and died in 1815. He 
 was one of the seven twins of his parents, and he and his brother — 
 the seventh pair — alone survived infancy. The following sketch 
 of his career may be more interesting if we recollect that he had 
 no great social or family influence, that he never attended any noted 
 school or had a regular university course, that he was not a Fellow 
 of the College of Physicians, that he never held any Court appoint- 
 ment and was not on the staff of any well-known London Hospital. 
 He may have had his good turns of fortune, but he had few 
 advantages in his birth, education and up-bringing, and the success 
 of his evidently healthful, happy, vigorous and useful career was 
 due almost entirely to his own application, his keenness in his 
 profession, his love of humanity, the breadth of his interests, his 
 zest for life, and his happy disposition. He was born in the West 
 Indies and may have had some French blood in his veins, for he 
 refers in a letter to the suggestion, without denying it, that he 
 had the " volatility of the Creole with the plodding industry of the 
 German." (Fig. 2.) He had no sister and, as he was sent to 
 England at the early age of six, we cannot claim much home 
 influence in forming his character. He never saw his father again. 
 He was sent to a small school of forty or sixty boys at Penketh, 
 in Lancashire, kept by a member of the Society of Friends, 
 for Coakley belonged to a Quaker family and he lies buried in 
 the Friends' Burial Ground, Little Coleman Street (now re-named
 
 EARLY LIFE. 
 
 3 
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 Xi 
 
 
 H 
 
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 Q 

 
 6 JOHN COAKLKV LETTSOM. 
 
 Roscoe Street), Bunhill Row. While at this school, he tame 
 under the influence of the well-known Quaker minister, Samuel 
 Fothergill, of Warrington, the younger brother of the celebrated 
 Dr. John Fothergill, of London, and from this more or less accidental 
 acquaintance, we can trace an influence on the career of Lettsom 
 and the origin of our own Folhergillian Gold Medal. At this 
 small day-school Lettsom only remained until the age of 14, and 
 during this time, if he learned small Latin and less Greek, he had 
 the much greater advantage of acquiring a knowledge and love of 
 nature by being allowed and encouraged to join in the usual country 
 sports of school boys of a former generation. Following the hounds 
 on foot, sometimes assisted by pole-jumping ; bathing and swim- 
 ming « the use of bow and arrow ; fishing, sliding, and long days 
 spent in nutting or bird-nesting, not only helped to form a vigorous 
 and active constitution, but gave a keenness in observation, a 
 resourcefulness in emergencies, a quickness of eye, and a love of 
 fellowship with nature, which the present generation runs the risk 
 of losing with its exaggeration of formal games confined within 
 monotonous playing grounds. The healthiness of the school is 
 testified to by the fact that dining the forty years that this school 
 was under the head-mastership of Lettsom's teacher, only one death 
 occurred in the school. American visitors this evening will be 
 interested to hear that this was the case of Springett Penn, the 
 son and heir of the Penns of Pennsylvania, and it was said that 
 he was in a consumptive state when he entered the school. 
 
 A Medical Apprentice. 
 
 Lettsom's education finished in his 14th year. His father was 
 dead, and his mother in the far West Indies had married 
 again. He was then sent to Liverpool for a business training, 
 but, at the end of a year, circumstances arose which resulted in 
 his being apprenticed as a pupil to Abraham Sutciiff', a surgeon and 
 apothecary at Settle in Yorkshire. If the school in Lancashire 
 helped in the promotion of Lettsom's physical vigour and powers 
 of observation, it is to his five years' residence in Yorkshire 
 that we may ascribe the opportunity for the acquisition of a 
 love of learning, much book lore, habits of work, training of 
 memory, and the faculty of managing patients. His master, 
 Sutclift', was an excellent classical scholar, though quite -self-taught,
 
 A MEDICAL APPRENTICE. i 
 
 and under his guidance he made such progress in Latin thai In' was 
 able to study in thai language the works of Boerhaave, Win-low. 
 and others. We should remember that in the L8tb century Latin 
 was still a living language, for Lettsom, like all physicians oi tin 
 time, could follow lectures in it at foreign universities, discuss 
 medical matters with colleagues of various countries in Latin, ami, 
 by its medium, submit himself for a diploma at Leyden. He records 
 that he "attended the Lectures of Lines, Sinclair, Plummer, and 
 Rutherford in that language (i.e. Latin), in which I was pretty well 
 qualified to maintain a conversation or dispute " (Letter 15, 
 duly 17th, 178.*?). With a party of friends he shared the expense 
 of procuring a French master from London, so that he not only 
 could read the language with ease, but could speak and write it 
 fairly well. He obtained a few Greek books, and acquired a little 
 knowledge of that language. This must have been a vastly superior 
 education to the fragmentary knowledge of disjointed grammar of 
 mispronounced Latin, which nowadays takes up so many years of 
 an English boy's life and results in such appalling ignorance both of 
 it and of his own tongue. 
 
 While at Settle his favourite study was botany, and thus he laid 
 the foundation for much of his delight in after years in his week- 
 ends at his country house at Camberwell. Lettsom early realised 
 that he had not a good memory, and in his 18th year he started 
 the habit of careful note- taking and the construction of tables. 
 '"Thus," as his biographer, Pettigrew, records, "with moderate 
 powers of mind, he was able to supply by industry and art what 
 nature had denied him." 
 
 We have no record of his purely professional training during 
 these years, from 15 to 20, when he was apprenticed to a country 
 apothecary and surgeon. But I have myself been articled as a 
 " medical pupil " in a provincial town, and am therefore probably 
 amongst the last survivors of a now extinct stage in medical 
 education. Anyhow, it helps me to imagine what many of 
 Lettsom's duties were. Each morning he would have to fill up 
 the stock of mixtures in the surgery, give an eye to the leeches, 
 and inscribe in a large round hand Die Soils, or Die Jovis, or the 
 other daily heading in the Day Book. When his master had 
 started in his gig on the morning round, the pupil might have to 
 see and prescribe for a string of club patients, the inspection of 
 the tongue and the feeling of the pulse being the only methods
 
 8 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM 
 
 of physical examination employed. Later in the day he might be 
 sent round to visit the chronic cases, change dressings, vaccinate, 
 or even to see how a confinement case was getting on. I attended 
 my first midwifery case at the age of 17, and, while still a medical 
 pupil, I had learned to apply the forceps and perform intra-uterine 
 version. Much of the afternoon would be occupied in dispensing 
 for the cases his employer had seen during the morning, and no 
 small part of this art would be the neatness and skill with which 
 labels were written out and gummed on, corks were securely inserted, 
 and bottles were wrapped in clean white paper, sealed and addressed. 
 The training this gave in method, order, cleanliness, certainty, and 
 despatch is not to be despised, while the pupil acquired a direct 
 demonstration of the appearance, smell and taste of various mixtures, 
 the size of pills, and the incompatibility of drugs. Then, pills 
 had to be rolled, and even silvered, powders had to be pestled, and 
 ointments to be mixed. The cutting and rolling of bandages and 
 the lining of splints would be part of his work. The making of 
 tinctures and infusions, the stirring and dividing of powders, the 
 spreading of blisters, also took up much time in the surgery, and 
 outside of it there would be occasional help at operations, or at 
 setting limbs and reducing dislocations. Amongst the more weary- 
 ing of his duties would be the daily or weekly " posting up the books," 
 and every quarter or so " the sending out the bills." In Lettsom's 
 days there were no administrations of anaesthetics, a duty which 
 devolved chiefly on the apprentice in the days of my pupilage. 
 
 Lettsom was apprenticed for five years to a country apothecary ; 
 I was a " medical pupil " (which had become the designation of the 
 Victorian era) for two years. This stage in medical education is 
 now extinct, and it is not likely that it will ever be revived. Yet 
 it had much to recommend it, and one cannot help thinking that to 
 it Lettsom was indebted for many things, and, amongst others, 
 for the art of putting in practice the Hippocratic aphorism that 
 " the physician must not only be prepared to do what is right 
 himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the 
 externals co-operate." 
 
 Studies Medicine. 
 
 At the end of his five years in Settle, and at the age of 20, 
 Lettsom, in 1766, started for London, where he was without a 
 relation and did not know a friend. His subsequent career is so
 
 START IN LONDON. 9 
 
 well epitomised in a letter he wrote twenty-five years later, thai I 
 cannot do better than transcribe it : — 
 
 "London, December 31st, 1791. 
 
 " Medicine is rather a practical than a brilliant art, and 
 depends upon study as much as genius. Poverty led me to 
 physic. I was placed with a country apothecary, whose fee 
 was moderate. I had no particular predilection for medicine. 
 I never possessed genius; my memory was had; I made 
 dictionaries and tables of my own invention; to assist memory. 
 I formed indexes of what I read, and by industry acquired 
 something. I came to London, and saw Dr. (John) Fothergill. 
 my ambition was inflamed, and I dared to say, London shall 
 be my theatre ; but having no more money than to cany me 
 through the hospitals I could not attend many lectures, and 
 upon this depended my improvement ; for instead of hearing 
 and learning of lectures, I was compelled to learn at the 
 bed of sicknesss. Here I saw nature, and learnt my art 
 without the leading-strings of professors. I acquired an early 
 habit of behaving with kindness to the sick, and having 
 known want, I knew how to sympathise with distress. 
 After two years in an hospital I went to the West Indies to 
 get assistance to bring me upon the theatre I now act. Six 
 months abroad enabled me to visit London, Edinburgh, and 
 Leyden, and ultimately to sit down in the first city ; and I 
 know not why any other person, with £500, may not do the 
 same. " Yours respectfully, 
 
 " J. C. Lettsom." 
 
 This is a good letter with a brave ring in it, revealing much of 
 our Founder's character both by what it states, and also by what 
 it omits. Lettsom does not mention in this letter that though he 
 returned, for the first and only time in his life, to his native island 
 to get assistance, his first action on arrival in the West Indies 
 was to free the fifty slaves he had inherited. Apart from these 
 slaves, and a small portion of land, he was not possessed of £50 in 
 the world. " The moment I came of age," as he writes in another 
 letter (January 20th, 1791), " I found my chief property was in 
 slaves, and without considering of future support, I gave them 
 freedom, and began the world without fortune, without a friend, 
 without person, and without address."
 
 hi john coakley lettso.m. 
 
 Practice in London: Income. 
 
 The " assistance " which he went to seek on the Island of Tortola 
 he himself created by starting practice there at the age of twenty- 
 three, and in the short space of five months he amassed the surprising 
 sum of £2,000. He must surely have had a keen sense of the business 
 side of his profession if at this age, and as a first start, and in an 
 insignificant West Indian Island, he could earn from his profession 
 at the rate of £4,800 per annum. His income later on was equally 
 astonishing. His biographer states that by the age of forty he had 
 acquired, and for a considerable time maintained, the first practice 
 as a physician in the City of London. It appears that in 1783 (at 
 the age of 39) he received £3,600; in 1784, £3,900; in 1785, 
 £4.015 ; in 1786, £4,500. It is said that if, at this time, he had 
 accepted all the fees presented to him, his receipts would have been 
 marly doubled. From 1786 to 1800 (aged 42 to 56) they increased 
 greatly, amounting to not less than between £5,000 and £12,000 
 annually. When we remember Lettsom's lack of professional 
 prestige, his comparative youth, his distinguished contemporaries, 
 and the much greater purchasing power of money a hundred and 
 twenty-five years ago, this goodly income — so far as my experience 
 goes — is a higher pecuniary reward than the physician of the present 
 day can hope for. But, if he made a good income, it was only earned 
 by hard and incessant work. Thus, of this £2,000 he earned by 
 practice at Tortola, he gave half to his mother, and, with the remaining 
 £1,000, he determined to return to England. After a Wamderjaho' 
 spent at Edinburgh, Paris and elsewhere, he took his Degree of Doctor 
 of .Medicine at Leyden on June 20th, 1769, with a thesis entitled 
 •• Observationes ad vires There pertinentes " and commenced practice 
 in London under the protection of Dr. John Fothergill. If Lettsom 
 earned much money he also spent it generously ; in a letter written 
 in his 39th year (February 18th, 1783) he writes that "with an 
 income of £5,000 a year I am always involved." This need not 
 surprise us when we read that between the first day of January and 
 the third week in February his donations one year amounted to 
 £600. Besides this munificence in charity, his hospitality must 
 have involved him in lavish expenditure. He writes that "with one 
 domestic or another I have about twenty-two in family" (Letter 49. 
 January 16th, 1787).
 
 COUNTRY HOUSE AT OAMBEKWELL. I I 
 
 Ci 'i \ti:v House at Camberwell. 
 
 This \\;is doubtless between his bouse in Sambrook Court, 
 liasinghall Street, in the City, ami the considerable mansion which 
 he erected in 1779 and calls "my rural villa about 4 miles from 
 town" (Figs. 3 and ">, pp. 1-'! and 15 ). This was Grove Hill, at 
 Camberwell, where he had five acres of garden, 200 fruit trees, a 
 botanical garden, a large museum, a library of 12,000 volumes, an 
 apiary <>f 64 hives, walks, lawns, fountains, ponds, groups of 
 statuary, and an avenue called "Shakespeare's Walk," with what 
 Pettigrew calls "an uncommonly fine statue of our immortal 
 Dramatist " at the end of it (Fig. 4, p. 14). It is generally supposed 
 that Camberwell owes its name to a famous well, and it has even 
 been claimed that the identical well was situated on Dr. Lettsom'.-, 
 estate.* The property, unfortunately, passed out of his hands 
 before his death, but a full description of it is enshrined in a volume 
 of blank verse by the Rev. Thomas Maurice, a charmingly illustrated 
 quarto book of 76 pages.! The Medical Society is the fortunate 
 possessor of a copy of this quaint work, recently presented to it by 
 Mr. John H. A. Elliot, a great-grandson of Dr. Lettsom's daughter 
 Eliza, who married Colonel John Elliot, F.R.S. (Fellow of New 
 College, Oxford).^ From this poem, written in the stilted style of 
 the period, we learn that from the summit of Grove Hill views could 
 be enjoyed of Deptford, Woolwich, the "stately towers of Green- 
 wich " (" superb asylum of the brave "), the shipping on " the 
 exulting tide " of the Thames, the " sister hills " of Hampstead 
 and Highgate, Stanmore's " fir-clad height," and — 
 
 "... Harrow's lofty bower and spire-crown'd brow 
 Majestic frowning on the plains below." 
 
 At Grove Hill Lettsom was in the habit of receiving visits from 
 celebrated foreigners, and men of learning and taste. No less a 
 character than Dr. Johnson's biographer, the immortal Boswell, was 
 
 * W. H. Blanch, ' i'e Parish of Camberwell,' 1S75. 
 
 + ' Grove Hill. A Descriptive Poem. By the Author of Indian Antiquities. 
 The engravings on wood by J. Anderson, from drawings by Ci. Samuel. London : 
 Printed by T. Bensley, for John and Arthur Arch, Grracechurch Street, and 
 .1 . Wright, Piccadilly, 1799.' 
 
 I ' Trans. Med. Soc. London,' vol. xli, 1918.
 
 12 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 a frequent visitor there and refers to these Camberwell parties in 
 some verses from which I quote the following : — 
 
 " Yet lire we gay in ev'ry way, 
 
 Not minding where the joke lie : 
 On Saturday at bowls we play 
 At Camberwell with Coaklet. 
 
 Methinks you laugh to hear but half, 
 
 The name of Dr. Lettsom : 
 From him of good, — talk, liquors, food, — 
 
 His guests will always get some. 
 
 And guests has he, in ev'ry degree, 
 
 Of decent estimation ; 
 His liberal mind holds all mankind 
 
 As an extended Nation. 
 
 Lettsom we view a Quaker true, 
 
 'Tis clear he's so in one sense : 
 His Spirit strong, & ever young, 
 
 Refutes pert Priestley's nonsense. 
 
 In fossils lie is deep we see, 
 
 Nor knows Beasts, Fishes, Birds ill : 
 "With plants not few, some from Pelew, 
 
 And wondrous Mangel Wurzel ! 
 
 West India bred, warm heart, cool head, 
 
 The City's first Physician 
 By schemes humane, — Want, Sickness, Pain, 
 
 To aid is his ambition." 
 
 Referring to his week-ends at Grove Hill he mentions that he had 
 "escaped depredators and robbers pretty well, not having been 
 attacked above four times in twenty years." In parenthesis I might 
 mention that I go through Camberwell in my weekly visits to my 
 Clinic, and that my motor car runs me down to King's College 
 Hospital in twenty-five minutes through the long, weary, sordid, and 
 mean streets which have replaced the country lanes where his coach 
 once rolled. 
 
 Towards the end of his life " a train of adverse circumstances, 
 originating in the prodigality of benevolence, obliged Dr. Lettsom 
 to part with his delightful mansion" (Pettigrew). Many of his 
 books and tracts found their way to the British Museum. 
 
 Grove Hill To-day. 
 
 The house at Grove Hill subsequently became a school for young 
 ladies, and there are Fellows of the Society who recall attending
 
 GROVE HILL TO-PAY, 
 
 L3 
 
 patients bhere. A recent, visit, in the company of our Registrar 
 (Mr. Iiethell) jiiuI Mr. and Mrs. John Elliot, disclosed t lie fact that 
 Lettsom's villa has been pulled down and a vow of houses built in 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 
 its place. However, the house and garden represented in the plan as 
 belonging to Mr. Henry Smith and included in Lettsom's property 
 (marked T in the plan, Fig. 4), still exist, and as they appear to be
 
 14 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 unaltered after 140 years, they give a good idea of the dignity and 
 charm of the " rural retreat " where our Founder, " his spirit strong 
 and ever young," was wont to spend his week ends, and dispense 
 the generous hospitality which made his guests " gay in ev'iv 
 way." This property is, fortunately, in the possession of a member 
 of our profession, Dr. Couper Cripps, and both house and garden 
 are in excellent preservation. 
 
 The Rev. T. Maurice thus apostrophises Camberwell Grove :— 
 
 " Ye towering elms, on whose majestic brows 
 An hundred rolling years have shed their snows, 
 Admit me to your dark sequestered reign, 
 To roam with contemplation's studious train." 
 
 The Grove exists to-day, with its fine avenue of trees, as marked 
 on the plan of 1792 (Fig. 4), but, as we climb its straight ascent, we 
 notice that the elms have become old and scanty. The dark, 
 sequestered shade is now-a-days gratefully spread by a younger 
 generation of planes, chestnuts, Lombardy poplars, oaks, limes, and 
 acacia trees. On the left hand we notice that " Lower Springfield," 
 "The Fountain," "Upper Springfield," "The Lawn," and "The 
 Orchard," — marked on the plan of Lettsom's Estate (Fig. 4) — 
 have all disappeared before the advance of the builder. But, on 
 the left-hand side, there is a street which bears the name " Lettsom 
 Street," and exactly opposite to it there still stands a solitary 
 thatch-roofed cottage, looking picturesque and forlorn, so near to 
 grimy streets, but helping us to imagine how rustic was the retreat 
 to which our Founder escaped — when not attacked by "depredators 
 and robbers " during his four-mile drive from London. 
 
 Sambrook Court, his house in London, has vanished from Basing- 
 hall Street. 
 
 Hard Work ; Full Life. 
 As I have said, Lettsom's good income, which he spent so 
 generously, was earned by constant hard work. As early as the 
 age of twenty-three he records that he seldom prescribed for fewer 
 than fifty, and often twice as many, patients before breakfast. 
 When he was thirty-eight he Avrites (December 12th, 17.*S2) that, 
 "sometimes for the space of a week, I cannot command twenty 
 minutes' leisure in my own house." A year later he writes, " since 
 1769 when I first settled in London I have not taken one half 
 day's relaxation, and I cannot get to Grove Hill above once a 
 fortnight." In 1791 (he was then aged 47), he observes, "during
 
 ( To face p. 1 4.) 
 
 1 sttssaM 
 
 . 
 
 Fig. 4.— A Plan of Grove Hill, Camberwell, Surrey, belonging to J. C. Lettsom, M.D. 
 Engraved from a survey taken in 1792, and published on September 1st, 17W5, by 
 J. Edwards, Betchworth, Surry. (From a print in tiie possession of the Medical 
 
 Society.)
 
 IIAl;|i \\u|;K : I III. I. 
 
 15 
 
 tlic last nineteen years nol one holiday have I taken, and tin will 
 probably be the lasl of my life, unless sickness compels me I 
 
 leisure." The -holiday'' here referred to consisted in travelling 
 by coach to Margate, spending two hours on important business 
 there, and returning the same day, 144 miles in the day and night. 
 In another letter he records that his practice "had not suffered
 
 16 JOHN COAK.LEY LETTSOM. 
 
 him to sleep in his own bed for thirteen following nights," and 
 he evidently spent much, not only of his days but of his nights, 
 in his travelling coach, for one correspondent (February 8th, 1783), 
 reproached him for " converting his carriage into a dormitory and 
 a suttling-booth." His carriage served him for still another pur- 
 pose ; he lived in the days when letter-writing was an art ; he was 
 a voluminous writer, at times keeping up frequent communication 
 with 200 correspondents, and yet nearly all his letter-writing was 
 done in his carriage. He writes : "As I live in m}- carriage, 
 seldom having less than three pair of horses a day, and neglecting 
 my meals, except once a week that I dine with my wife, I have 
 some time to preserve my correspondence, having always in the 
 carriage pen, ink and paper, to amuse myself if I do not amuse my 
 correspondents."* In spite of this he records in his seventieth 
 year that, owing to his large correspondence, he was seldom in bed 
 before one in the morning (March 26th, 1814). When we recall 
 the condition of the roads in the 18th century, the pace at which 
 his coach must sometimes have travelled, and the non-invention of 
 stylographic pens, it is astonishing to glance at the number, length, 
 and completeness of the letters which have been preserved, and to 
 read, in a letter dated September 25th, 1804, that "my profes- 
 sional duties incessantly occupy me, and compel me to write all 
 my essays in my carriage." 
 
 Favourite Holiday. 
 
 The fullness of his life may also be judged from a record of his 
 favourite holiday. It is described in the following words by his 
 biographer, Pettigrew : — 
 
 " The only relaxation, if such it may be called, that Dr. Lettsom 
 ever permitted himself to enjoy was an annual visit to Margate, 
 to attend the anniversary of the Institution (i.e., the Sea Bathing 
 Infirmary). For this journey he usually alloted 72 hours. He 
 left town on the Saturday sufficiently early to get to Margate 
 in time to hear the charity-sermon preached on the Sunday morning 
 on behalf of the Institution. The remainder of the day he spent in 
 visiting a few families in the town, at Ramsgate, and at Broadstairs. 
 On Monday he examined every patient in the Infirmary, attended 
 
 * Letter 111, September 3rd, 1795, in ' Selections from the Medical Papers 
 and Correspondence of the late John Coakley Lettsom.' By Thomas John 
 Pettigrew, London, 1817.
 
 HIS FAVOURITE HOLIDAY. I 
 
 - 
 
 i lie General Meeting a1 the Assembly-house, dined with the 
 Governors and friends of the Charity, and at seven o'clock se( of! 
 for London, where lie arrived on the Tuesday morning. This 
 excursion always afforded the Doctor very great satisfaction." No 
 loafing week-end this for the busiest physician in London ! 
 
 On the occasion of another of his visits he tells us that lie sailed 
 from Billingsgate in the packet at four o'clock on the afternoon of 
 the 28th and got to Margate at nine on the 29th. He " left Margate 
 at nine in the evening of the 30th and arrived in London by Chaises 
 at ten o'clock in the morning." A single night in abed, sandwiched 
 between two strenuous days, preceded by one night tossing down 
 the river in a packet, and followed by a third night of thirteen 
 hours' jolting in post-chaises, was not bad going for a man of 69 '. 
 (Diary, August 28th-30th, 1813.)* 
 
 Manifold Interests. 
 
 If all these strenuous days and nights had been devoted solely 
 to his extensive practice, we should not be surprised. But his 
 varied interests and self-imposed duties were spread over a large 
 variety of subjects, and he rendered important public services as a 
 philanthropist. In 1770 he founded the General Dispensary in 
 Aldersgate Street (the first of its kind in London) ; he established 
 the Sea Bathing Infirmary at Margate ; he was one of the 
 Founders of our own Society ; he was an active member and a 
 lecturer of the Philosophical Society ; he was one of the Founders 
 of the Royal Humane Society ; he was a friend and supporter of 
 Edward Jenner, and an active supporter of the recently introduced 
 vaccination for small-pox • the reform of prisons was responsible 
 for his friendship and admiration for John Howard, and the amelio- 
 ration of the condition of the poor and helpless was his constant 
 care. He was the first man to introduce into England the mangel 
 wurzel, as is jestingly referred to in the verses I have quoted, and 
 he always kept up his interest in botany, agriculture, and fossils. 
 He wrote a book called the 'Naturalist's Companion,' which ran 
 through three editions, two editions of 1,500 being sold within 
 12 months (Letter 109, December 1st, 1804). He pointed out the 
 use of birds — even crows — and of moles, in Nature's economy, and 
 
 * For a reading of Lettsoni's manuscript Diary 1 am indebted to lii - great- 
 great-grandson, Mr. John H. A. Elliot. 
 
 b
 
 IS JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 pleaded for their preservation (Letter 137, June 22nd, 1812). He 
 anticipated our cult of the open window and the researches of 
 Leonard Hill, when he wrote his ' Essay on the Effects of Heated 
 and Stagnant Air' (see Letter 193, September 17th, 1772). 
 
 Soup kitchens met with his entire approval ; the manner of pre- 
 paring different kinds of soups is minutely noted in his pamphlet, 
 and the best receipts are given for various articles of diet. Alas, 
 that, after some 125 years, our soups should still be execrable and 
 our cuisine a bye- word amongst the nations ! In 1798 he published 
 a tract entitled 'Hints Respecting the Effects of Hard Drinking.' 
 He directed attention to bee-hives, " as appendages both of 
 ornament and utility to the gardens about the metropolis." He 
 calculated that, within 20 miles of London, no less than 50,000 
 bee-hives might be maintained, which, upon an average, would 
 produce as many guineas annually in honey and wax. two very 
 important articles of domestic use. In 1795 he wrote a tract on 
 ' Hints Respecting the Chlorosis of Boarding Schools,' with advice 
 as to games, diet, clothes, cleanliness, etc. He was greatly inter- 
 ested in the history of medicine. The KadqververwertuTigscmstalt in 
 Germany, about which there has recently been some commotion in 
 our Press, would appear, from a letter of Lettsom's, to have been 
 anticipated by 124 years. In 1793 he writes: "A friend of mine 
 has lately discovered the art of changing human flesh, particularly 
 the fleshy part, into spermaceti candles. This is not a fable. He 
 means to light up the large room of the Royal Society with the leg 
 of a man. I advised him to go to the swamps of Dunkirk, to Lyons, 
 Weissemberg, La Vendee, or Toulon, where he might find materials 
 sufficient to supersede all the tallow of Russia. If this project 
 succeed, we shall refine on the custom of the ancients in burning 
 their dead. We may burn our friends over a supper or a pipe. 
 This scheme may puzzle the Materialists about collecting the 
 remains against the last day. My friend has promised me some 
 human candles, but my wife will not suffer them to be burnt " 
 (Letter 95, October 15th, 1793). He begins this same letter by 
 saying, " My son is just returned from Gottingen, after nearly a 
 two years' absence," but there is no indication as to whether the 
 friend who had invented this new sort of human spermaceti candle 
 wa3 a Boche or a Briton ! 
 
 In 1801 he published three 8vo volumes of collected essays under 
 the title of ' Hints Designed to Promote Beneficence, Temperance,
 
 SI BSTITI IK- FOE WIIKATKN BREAD IN WAU TIME, L9 
 
 and Medical Science,'* and in these are found essays on such varied 
 subjects as Poverty, Discharged Prisoners, Prostitution, [nfectious 
 Fevers, a Samaritan Society, Crimes and Punishments, Wills and 
 Testaments, Lying-in Charities, the Deaf and Dumb, Village 
 
 Societies, the Blind, a Society for Promoting Useful Literature, 
 Hints to Masters and Mistresses, Religious Persecution, Humane 
 Societies for the Recovery of Drowned Persons, the Cow-pock, Card 
 Parties, Sunday Schools, the Philanthropic Society, Dispensaries. 
 Hydrophobia, Sea-bathing Infirmaries, and a Substitute for Wheat 
 I head. In 1815 he printed a Sketch of the Life and Character of 
 his friend Dr. Rush, entitled " Recollections of Dr. Rush." 
 Lettsom's works have been divided into three classes:— 
 
 I. Medical and Scientific. 
 II. Biographical. 
 III. Popular and Philanthropic. 
 
 Amongst the first we find 'Reflections on the General Treatment 
 and Cure of Fevers,' in the second class 'The Natural History of 
 the Tea Tree with Observations on its Medical Qualities,' while 
 in the third are found his Lectures on Medicine and Materia 
 Medica with " Practice of Physick." The Dictionary of National 
 Biography gives a list of some 40 or 50 contributions to literature. 
 
 Substitutes for Wheaten Bread in War Time in 1800. 
 
 Amongst his manifold interests, the important matter of bread 
 supply — including the social, economic, and national sides of the 
 question — did not escape Lettsom's attention. One gathers from 
 his writings that the price of the quartern loaf in 1774 was 8'/., 
 but by 1800 we find him writing : " At present our quartern loaf is 
 Is. 6d., a sum truly oppressive to the poor " (Letter 99, July 28th, 
 1S00). With our present day quartern loaf at only 9d., after three 
 years of world war, our population may take courage by seeing 
 what our forefathers had to endure in the Napoleonic struggles. 
 In 1774 Lettsom, amongst his numerous essays, printed one entitled, 
 " Hints respecting a Substitute for Wheat Bread," and this he re- 
 published in 1801 in the 3rd volume of his ' Hints and Essays.' 
 The substitute he warmly recommends is the fine flour of Indian 
 
 * London : Printed by and for Nichols, Son and Bentlev, Ked Lion Passage, 
 Fleet Street. 
 
 h 2
 
 '20 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 corn, to be mixed with that of wheat in equal proportion. He 
 adds that, " if rightly managed, the colour will be about the same 
 as the standard wheaten bread, and about 2d. in the quartern loaf 
 cheaper than the fine wheaten, when that may be at 8d. per 
 quartern." After insisting on the great nutritive value and the 
 agreeable sweet flavour of maize, he writes : " Some, indeed, do 
 not so easily reconcile themselves to it, which often arises from 
 the mismanagement of grinding the corn or baking the bread." 
 The bakers, he directs, have not acquired the best method of mixing 
 and preparing it with wheat-Hour, and as to the grinding, he 
 advises that the mill-stones should first be set so wide as but just 
 to burst the thick or farinaceous part of the grain, which should 
 then be passed through a sieve, so as to separate the part of the 
 interior edge of the grain, composed of a ligneous spongy substance, 
 the middle of which is of a dark brown colour, and of a bitter taste 
 which, if ground into the flour, gives it a disagreeable flavour. 
 When this deleterious part has been separated on the sieve, the 
 remainder should be ground with the stones set so as to render 
 it sufficiently fine. " By this precaution," he adds, " the flour is 
 as white as that of the finest wheat, and full as pleasant to eat ; 
 it possesses the peculiar quality of preserving the bread, made from 
 a mixture of it, in a moist state for many days, which, at least in 
 dry weather, is no inconsiderable advantage.'' He expatiates on 
 the way in which the adoption of this " substitute " would release 
 our agricultural lands for other important cultivation. Lettsom 
 also suggested the use of potatoes as a partial substitute for bread, 
 and recommends the use of one-fourth of potatoes with the 
 remainder of flour, as comprising the most pleasant and wholesome 
 bread that can be taken. He points out that if a little ground 
 rice is added, the bread is prevented from crumbling, a matter of 
 consequence in a large family. 
 
 The Making of Porridge. 
 
 In this same essay on " A Substitute for Wheaten Bread," he 
 describes how porridge should be made. The directions are so 
 detailed, clear, and concise that I cannot refrain from giving it as 
 an example of the scrupulous care he took in his writings and as 
 showing the intimate personal knowledge he had of such small, but 
 highly important, domestic matters. 1 give his recipe with the
 
 AMERICAN FRIENDSHIPS. 21 
 
 greater willingness, since I know myself that it is the best method, 
 ;ni(] will result in a very much better dish than one sometimes meets 
 with in England ! 
 
 I iettsom describes the process us applied to Indian meal (maize). 
 but it is quite the correct way of cooking Scotch oatmeal porridge. 
 lie writes as follows :— 
 
 •• The cheapest and most advantageous method of using Indian 
 corn as food is by making the flour of it into hasty pudding, in a 
 manner very similar to water-pottage, a food made of oatmeal in 
 the North of England and in Scotland. A quantity of water, pro 
 portioned to the quantity of hasty pudding intended to be made, is 
 put over the fire in an open iron pot or kettle, and, a proper 
 quantity of salt for seasoning the pudding being previously dissolved 
 in the water, Indian meal is stirred into it by little and little with 
 a wooden spoon with a long handle, while the water goes on to be 
 heated and made to boil, great care being taken to put in the meal 
 by very small quantities, and by sifting it slowly through the 
 fingers of the left hand, and stirring the water about very briskly 
 at the same time with the wooden spoon with the right hand to 
 mix the meal with the water in such a manner as to prevent lumps 
 being formed. The meal should be added so slowly that when the 
 water is brought to boil the mass should not be thicker than water- 
 gruel, and half an hour more at least should be employed to add 
 the additional quantity of meal necessary for bringing the pudding 
 to be of the proper consistency, during which time it should be 
 stirred about continually, and kept constantly boiling. It should 
 be of a consistence to suspend a spoon upright. It may be eaten 
 with milk, or with butter, sugar, or molasses." 
 
 American Friendships. 
 
 A reference to his many honours gives good evidence of the 
 general opinion entertained respecting the literary, philosophical 
 and benevolent character and talents of Lettsom (p. 40). It will be 
 observed that many of them came from America, a part of the 
 world where he had numerous friends and was highly respected. 
 Indeed, in his time, no student from America was thought properly 
 equipped unless provided with letters of recommendation or intro- 
 duction to Lettsom. So great was their faith in his judgment, that 
 the selection and purchase of books for the Pennsylvania Hospital 
 was entrusted to him. A rich tract of land, the property of his
 
 22 .JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 friend Dr. Benjamin Rush, upon Sugar Creek, a stream which 
 empties itself into the north-east branch of the river Susquehanna 
 bears his name, or at least did, when his Memoirs were published by 
 T. J. Pettigrew in 1817 (vol. i, p. 101).* (Fig. 6.) 
 
 He was the first to send Jenner's vaccine lymph across the Atlantic, 
 consigning it to the care of his friend Dr. Waterhouse, Professor of 
 Medicine in the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
 
 He sent the seeds of the mangel wurzel to Dr. Benjamin Rush, of 
 Philadelphia, who acknowledged them as follows : " Many thanks to 
 you for the seeds of the mangel wurzel. I have distributed them exten- 
 sively. To our great and good Virginian farmer, General Washing- 
 ton, I have sent the largest number of them " (Letter 205, May 4th, 
 1788). 
 
 Association with Celebrated People. 
 
 But his large practice and all these multifarious occupations did 
 not exhaust Lettsom's boundless activity. His various interests 
 and his general culture, added to his hospitable and cheerful 
 character, brought him into contact with many of the most 
 celebrated people of his generation, — a time when the renaissance 
 of English art and literature was in full flower. Although he was 
 born, brought up, and lived a Quaker he was — particularly for. that 
 period — remarkably free from all religious bigotry. In spite of 
 the tenets of his sect he was gazetted Physician to the Camberwell 
 Volunteer Infantry in September, 1803, and although he writes, 
 "as a Quaker I could not adopt a military character," yet, he 
 exclaims, " May I fall by the sword rather than live to see this 
 free country the domain of a Corsican murderer and usurper ! " 
 (April 20th, 1S05.) We might commend this generous sentiment 
 of 1805 in a Quaker physician, aged 60, to the conscientious 
 objectors of our own day. Dr. Lettsom, though ready to die by 
 the sword, declined, as a Quaker, to wear one. When referring 
 in a letter to George III he writes : " The King has always been 
 
 * Through the great kindness of Prof. W. AY. Keen, of Philadelphia, I have 
 been able to trace this tract of land, and Mr. Thomas L. Montgomery, of the 
 Pennsylvania State Library, Harrisburg, has been good enough to supply a 
 copy of the map reproduced in Fig. 6. He points out that the plots in this plan 
 were not owned by Dr. Benjamin Rush, — the hero physician at the time of the 
 plague in Philadelphia in 1793, — but by his son. Richard, Attorney General, 
 afterwards Secretary of the Treasury, and at one time Minister to England. He 
 also informs me that there is no mention of the two names, — Letsome ami 
 Fothergill, — in the modern maps nor in the Gazetteer.
 
 {To face p. 22.) 
 
 Fig. 6. — Map of Pennsylvania showing the district on Sugar Creek called "Letsome," 
 and, further south, that on Loyalsock Creek, called "Fothergill," belonging to 
 Richard Rush. (From Howell's map of Pennsylvania, 17^2.) See p, 22.
 
 WIDE CIRCLE OF ACQUAINTANCES. 23 
 
 very kind to mo, and admitted me more than once into bia presence 
 withoul a Court dress, which I never could assume, and perhaps 
 I am thf only person who ever kissed bis hand unpowdered and 
 unsworded." Lettsom's friendships also were untainted by religious 
 narrowness; indeed, he expresses bis partiality for the Bociety of 
 the Clergy of the English Church, because, as he says, " they are 
 a learned and improved part of the community." "The religion 
 ot a Quaker," he adds, "as far as 1 know, is as expansive as the 
 air; at least I entertain no partialities for sect" (Letter 109, 
 December 1st, 1S04). With one of them, the Rev. J. Plumtre, 
 he kept up a steady correspondence for ten years. So, in regard 
 to the theatre, he writes as follows, on December 1st, 17.^4 : 
 '• About fourteen years ago I went to see Garrick in King Lear, 
 and never since have been at any theatre till the present time ; 
 it is not quite consistent with our religious system, but I confess 
 I like to see perfection in every species of art, and this wonderful 
 woman, Mrs. Xiddons, being a subject of universal admiration, I 
 ventured, against ecclesiastical orthodoxy, to see her in Zara. It 
 is astonishing with what powers of nature and passion she can 
 place herself in the tender movements of the heart. She speaks 
 as if she suffered all the woes she describes, but she speaks most 
 powerfully to the soul when she is silent : her features, her attitudes, 
 give utterance to that language which melts the heart, and interests 
 imagination. She is a fine figure ; she is just that medium which 
 has softness without grossness, and tender expression without 
 languor." This catholicity in his tastes and friendships is further 
 illustrated by the following letter, thanking Sir Morclaunt Martin for 
 the present of a turkey (April 27th, 1792) : " Accept my thanks for 
 the gigantic turkey, which faced with gallantry and undismay a group 
 of different nations and sects. I had Sir John Peter, Consul at 
 Ostend, Professor Blumenbach from Gottingen, besides a Scotchman, 
 an Irishman, a Dane, an American, a West Indian, a Papist, a 
 Presbyterian, a Quaker, a No Religion, a Sandemanian, and a 
 staunch Churchman, who all agreed in one Creed, that the dead 
 Philistine or Titan merited the united benediction. It was an 
 entertainment that afforded me much gratification. Happy sacrifice 
 to the appetite of man, that thou shouldst effect more concord 
 amongst different nations and sects, than even reason, the proudest 
 and sublimest of all men's gifts ! " This sociable and cosmopolitan 
 trait in his character is noted by his biographer who writes — " The
 
 24 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 universality of his acquaintance, his extensive practice as a physician, 
 liis unbounded philanthropy, and his connection with public institu- 
 tions for the promotion of medical, philosophical, literary, and 
 benevolent pursuits, introduced him to the knowledge of all classes 
 of Society and obtained for him universal esteem and admiration." 
 Lettsom was associated with some of the most celebrated men of his 
 time, an age rich in historical personalities. We have seen how he 
 was frequently received by King George III ; he records his 
 impressions of hearing Pitt and Fox speak in the House of Commons, 
 he corresponded with " General Washington of America," Dr. Rush 
 of Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, Erasmus Darwin, Baron Haller ; 
 Sir Charles Linne (Linnseus) wrote to him in Latin ; he studied 
 under Dr. Akenside (the author of the ' Pleasures of Imagination,' 
 whom he found " the most supercilious and unfeeling Physician 
 he had hitherto known ") ; amongst the Founders of the Royal 
 Humane Society (1774) he came in contact with Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, 
 Dr. Heberden and William Fox ; he interrogated George Bidder, 
 the remarkable eight-year-old boy who lived in St. Bartholomew 
 Close, who could not write and scarcely read and yet made long 
 arithmetical calculations (May 17th, 1815); he came across Joanna 
 Southcott and attended Lady Huntingdon ; he met Braham at 
 musical parties, and he dined with Wilkes, Boswell, and "Lee the 
 American" (February 8th, 1788); he knew the celebrated Lady 
 Hamilton and was very grateful to her for her kindness to his son 
 when visiting Naples;* Sir William Hamilton, "loaded with years 
 and honours " visited him at Grove Hill ; it is not clear if he ever 
 met Lord Nelson, but the great sailor expressed his " respect and 
 admiration " over several of the letters written by Lettsom to 
 Nelson's neighbour in Norfolk, Sir M. Martin (he of the Titanic 
 turkey) ; amongst his intimate friends were Edward Jenner, of 
 Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, and Babington, who nearly invented 
 the laryngoscope (see p. 61). 
 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson and Boswell. 
 
 Boswell, whose verses I have already quoted, was a frequent visitor 
 at Grove Hill, and Dr. Samuel Johnson must often have called in 
 
 # Lettsom writes that he had also been acquainted with Lady Hamilton 
 " when Miss Hunt " (Letter 122, June 3rd, 1805), hut this is doubtless a slip of 
 the pen for "Hiss Hart," as Emma Hart was her name in her early and cloud} 
 days.
 
 Ills STRENUOUS LIFE. 25 
 
 thereon his way to tea with Mrs. Thrale, ;tt Streatham. Lettsom 
 evidently knew him well, and gives us the following exquisite pen 
 picture of him (January 13th, 1785):— "The lute Dr. Johnson was 
 a pious man ; attached, I confess, to established system, but it was 
 from principle. En company 1 neither found him austere nor dog- 
 matical ; he was certainly not polite, but he was not rude; lie was 
 familial- with suitable company, but his language in conversation 
 was sententious ; he was sometimes jocular, but you felt as if you 
 were playing with a lion's paw. His body was large, his features 
 strong, his face scarred and furrowed with the scrofula; he had a 
 heavy look, but when he spoke, it was like lightening over a dark- 
 cloud. With a capaciousness of mind, and some inequalities in it, 
 like his face, he resemhled a Colossus, which, like that at Rhodes, 
 embraced the whole sea of literature, affording awe and distance 
 rather than esteem and social friendships ; and from some of his 
 writings one may discern a sternness from his disappointment 
 rather than from philosophy. His Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, 
 was perhaps his own picture, and it inculcates apathy to the world, 
 rather than happiness in it. Upon the whole, he seems not to have 
 heen a happy man ; his religion was rigid rather than social; and 
 his mind warped by system rather than humanised by virtue and 
 truth. But who is perfect 1 " 
 
 Lettsom's conviviality is ilustrated by the following description 
 of his meeting with the renowned Admiral Sir William Sydney 
 Smith (1764-1840), at the house of his friend and patient, Abraham 
 C4oldsmid : — " At Goldsmid's ball I met a man I had wished much 
 to know, Sir Sydney Smith, so I told him, and he assured me he 
 had a similar penchant. We ate a sandwich together, and then hob- 
 a-nob'd our glasses of porter, and at half-past one in the morning I 
 left him dancing with a Jewess " (January 3rd, 1805). This cheery 
 picture of a Quaker in his 61st year, the leading physician in full 
 practice in London, fully bears out his own statement that " my 
 spirits carry me through a succession of employments with facility " 
 (December 12th, 1782). 
 
 Lettsom's Strenuous Life. 
 Certainly his constant " succession of employments," his enormous 
 practice by day and by night, his long coach journeys, his multi- 
 farious social engagements, his hospitable entertainments, the care 
 of his garden, his voluminous correspondence and his extensive
 
 26 JOHN COAKLEV LETTSOM. 
 
 publications, till one with wonder. When we recollect that this full 
 life was lived without our modern aids to despatch in the way of 
 secretaries and stenographers, telephones and telegrams, railways 
 and motor cars, one is the more astonished. Evidently the 
 strenuous life was not invented by Theodore Roosevelt, and a 
 physician of the 18th century could work as hard as any 
 hustler of our time to earn neurasthenia and nervous prostration. 
 \\ e are not surprised that a friend wrote to him (Letter <'», 
 February 8th, 1783) that "the perpetual vortex and whirl in which 
 you live really amazes me," and pertinently asked, on hearing of 
 Lettsom's visiting 50 to 100 patients a day, " Is it possible that, 
 with all your learning, sagacity and acuteness, you can, on such ;i 
 superficial view and inquiry, be thoroughly instructed in all the 
 circumstances of your patients' cases and constitutions 1 " His 
 friends preached (Letter 8, March 5th, 1783), "some repose and 
 some relaxation from that perpetual tension both of mind and 
 body" which goaded him "to persist in such an incessant hurry 
 and whirl." And again, " Let me seriously advise you, my friend, 
 for the sake of your health, to relinquish your nocturnal lucubra- 
 tions and your convivialities. Go to bed with your wife and 
 family at 11 o'clock and rise every morning as early as Mr. Hales " 
 (Letter 10, March 18th, 1783). Two years later (Letter 45, Novem- 
 ber 25th, 1785), the same candid acquaintance writes: "Upon my 
 word, my good friend, your situation is truly deplorable and claims 
 conrpassion. Neither night nor day, nor any change of season 
 allows you a moment's repose, incessantly employed in rattling 
 along the streets and highways, on a long trot, hearing dismal 
 narratives of disease and despondency, prescribing for the sick, 
 relieving the wants of others by your benevolence, composing works 
 for the benefit of the public, superintending the progress of the 
 press and carrying on an extensive correspondence — even compelled 
 to write in your carriage." These jobations respecting " the whirl- 
 wind in which I live and move" Lettsom accepted with great good 
 nature, expressed " a decreasing ardour after medical employment 
 and a thirst for rural retreat " (Letter 3), determined " on sleeping 
 every night out of town," " quitting night business and long night 
 journeys " (Letter 75, March 13th, 1790), and yet, some 14 years 
 later, we find he is " rarely " at Camberwell, but " usually dines 
 there every Sunday with a party of select friends and now and then 
 sleeps there" (Letter 109, December 1st, 1804). Although he
 
 LOVE OF His PROFESSION. 2< 
 
 deplores thai liis "professional duties obliged him to remain a 
 denizen of the metropolis," yel he was able to hob-a-nob al balls al 
 half-past one in the morning and take his week end rest by a rush 
 
 to Margate and hack ! 
 
 The fact is, Lettsom loved his life and revelled in his overwork. 
 ■' I love my profession," he writes, " I live with my patients in the 
 most frank sociality, and 1 fancy they love rather than fear me." 
 And, again, ""medical business is not my plague but my pleasure " 
 (Letter 4, December 12th, L782). In his fifty-first year he writes : 
 "This is the highest and most divine profession, that can engage 
 human intellect. I have attended eighty-two thousand patients, 
 and what can equal the dignity of having so many lives entrusted 
 to your decision ! What more divine, than to sooth the afflicted, 
 and soften agony ! What more sublime than to restore to life the 
 victim of disease ! I envy not the prince on the throne, nor the 
 sultan in his harem, whilst I enjoy the confidence of the sick 
 chamber and the blessing of the restored. I love my profession, 
 perhaps too much. It loves me, and I have no objection to die in 
 the chamber of malady, provided I can mitigate it in a fellow 
 creature" (Letter 111, September 3rd, 1795). Indeed, Lettsom's 
 life was an illustration of the saying, " Si l'amour de la medecine 
 fait le savant, c'est l'amour du malade qui fait le medecin." He also 
 believed in varied interests and in the virtue of enjoyment.* 
 Writing on distractions and hobbies, he says (Letter 47, May 28th, 
 1786): "For my part, it ill behoves me to censure, who keep a 
 whole stud of racediobbies. If I had leisure, I would take up a 
 defence of them under proper bits and bridles. They are the best 
 remedies I know of for that dangerous disease called ennui, which is 
 an introduction to every other malady of the mind. If money, by 
 increasing and hoarding it, conferred any mental good, it would be 
 wrong to increase intellectual pleasures at the expense of the Surnmum 
 Bonum ; but, if hoarding it be proved the Summum Vitium, let us, dear 
 friend, occasionally trot, and even gallop, our intellectual hobbies. 
 
 * " In thus connecting a diversity of objects, our investigations are accelerated, 
 and our perceptions expanded ; the mind not only becomes more vigorous, but 
 elegant from the frequent and extensive use of its powers; what it hath begun, 
 it will have the sagacity to finish ; and what perfected, the spirit to refine. 
 For want of this liberal and vigorous cultivation of the arts, the mind has 
 gradually become enervated, and has relinquished that sublimity and refine- 
 ment which it had once acquired " (J. C. Lettsom, ' History of the Origin of 
 Medicine,' London, 1878, Introduction, p. 8).
 
 28 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 Who will thank us for dying rich ? Not those who get hold of our 
 scrapings. And pray who earns his money with more solicitude 
 than a physician 1 Who, therefore, has a greater moral right to 
 exchange care for pleasure 1 especially when those pleasures are 
 the gratification of intellect. This rational system of conduct is 
 not beneath the wisest and best of us ; let us therefore keep our 
 hobbies and ride them too." In these words we seem to hear, 
 echoing down the centuries, the philosophic advice of Shakespeare 
 to— 
 
 " frame your mind to mirth and merriment 
 Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life." 
 
 The Taming of the shrew, Induction. Sc. 2. 
 
 and npt 
 
 "' To tie my treasure up in silken bags, 
 To please the fool and death." 
 
 Pericles, iii, 2. 
 
 A study of his career convinces me that Lettsom threw himself 
 into his profession from love of the practice of it, and into his 
 philanthropic works from, as his biographer states, "benevolence 
 and real goodness of heart." Certain it is that he had no need to 
 work so hard for mere money, for when he was only 26 years of 
 age, he married the daughter of a wealthy tin-plate worker, 
 resident in Cannon Street, " and by this marriage acquired a very 
 considerable fortune." And he was neither self-indulgent, extrava- 
 gant, nor niggardly, for he tells a friend "that with an income of 
 many thousands a year from my profession I cannot grow rich." 
 Although he " enjoyed " — as the usual phrase puts it — the most 
 fashionable practice in London, yet he realised fully the fickleness 
 of the public, their ignorance in matters medical, and the craze for 
 quackery even amongst the upper and cultured classes. In a letter 
 to a medical friend in Dorchester he writes : " Among the people 
 of fashion in London, quackery is cultivated. Can one wonder at 
 lying advertisements, when it is known that Garrick, Lord Lonsdale, 
 and the Bishop of London were for awhile the patients of Myers- 
 bach.* These were men of sense ; but what is the intellectual 
 state of our nobility 1 Perpetually enslaved by the novelty of 
 fashion, however outri, they acquire a constitutional propensity to 
 imitation in everything; and leave their physician as they quit 
 an old coat " (Letter 52, August, 1787). 
 
 * A well known German quack of the period.
 
 I'KUSONAl 
 
 HABITS. 
 
 29 
 
 Lettsom's Personality. 
 
 Whal manner of man was Lettsom, and how did he manage to 
 live tin's strenuous life until he was over three score years and 
 ten' His colleague and biographer, Thomas Joseph Pettign-u . 
 thus describes his "person and habits": "He was of a tall, 
 
 delicate, extenuated structure ; his face was very strongly furrowed. 
 and his skin was of a dark yellow tint. He was remarkably neal 
 in his dress, which was 
 uniformly the same and 
 constructed after the 
 manner (though not with 
 the utmost precision) of 
 the religious society to 
 which he belonged. He 
 was astonishingly active, 
 even until the commence- 
 ment of his last illness. 
 He usually walked to 
 attend a portion of his 
 patients for two or three 
 hours in the morning, 
 after which he would 
 take his carriage to visit 
 the remainder. He en- 
 joyed a very good state 
 of health, though subject 
 to a cough in the winter 
 months, for which he 
 usually bled and applied 
 a blister, but he never 
 confined himself on this 
 account. His temperate 
 
 habits conduced to the enjoyment of health. He seldom exceeded 
 taking more than three or four glasses of wine after dinner, 
 which meal he usually ate with a keen appetite. Coffee 
 was his favourite beverage, which, as he was accustomed to 
 sit up frequently during half the night, to answer his numerous 
 correspondents, and pursue his literary engagements, very much 
 refreshed him. Before going to rest, he uniformly bathed his 
 
 Fhv. 7. — John Coakley Lettsom. 
 (Prom ;\ print kindly lent by Mr. John II. A. Elliot.)
 
 30 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 limbs in cold water, and in the morning aspersed the whole of 
 his body with the same. To this practice he attributed the 
 exc silent state of health he possessed. The equable temper he 
 preserved, no doubt, contributed materially to this desirable end ; 
 for his own benevolent heart impelled him to construe with indul- 
 gence the actions of others, however unfavourable they might 
 appear; for he was never known to speak ill, even of his own 
 inveterate enemies. He was the uniform pacificator of all 
 differences amongst his friends, which came to his knowledge, 
 and he very rarely failed in effecting an adjustment of them. 
 His friendship, as might be expected, . corresponded with the resl 
 of his disposition and character ; for, although he was most 
 scrupulously tardy in forming attachments, experience, unfortunately, 
 had taught him the fallacy of confiding too hastily on meretricious 
 appearances; but, when once assured of the correctness of his judg- 
 ment, he proved a firm and undeviating friend. His conversation 
 \\ as very sprightly, and enlivened with a variety of curious anecdotes. 
 S« i perfectly could he adapt himself to the habits of all kinds of 
 society, that he was as fit a companion for the young as for the aged ; 
 and each received the benefit of his instructive remarks, while the 
 smile of benignity beamed upon his countenance, and the warm 
 strain of benevolence played round his heart." This description of 
 our Founder's appearance confirms the impressions we receive from 
 the engravings accompanying this biography, and the paintings on 
 the walls of this room. The portrait on the west wall is less worthy 
 than the celebrated group on the east wall by Samuel Medley, 
 which shows Lettsom and the original Fellows of the Medical 
 Society. His personality is brought more before us if we remember 
 that he was " unpowdered and unsworded," that he wore a bob 
 wig, and that his reference to himself as " a volatile Creole " may 
 explain his yellow complexion. (Cf. Figs. 1 and 7, and Fig. 16, 
 facing p. 54). 
 
 Method of Work. 
 
 This being Lettsom's personal appearance, what was there in his 
 manner of work to explain all he got through 1 His biographer 
 gives as the following explanation : — " To a naturally good capacity, 
 he united the greatest degree of perseverance. This enabled him 
 tc> surmount various obstacles, that in the course of his practice 
 naturally occurred. The want of a good memory obliged him to
 
 METHOD OF W'OKK : OHARACTEU. 31 
 
 be methodical; and, by ureal, anil it may be said, a truly surprising 
 regularity, he so economised Ins time, as to be capable of' engaging 
 i'i the immense variety of occupations alluded to." These nol 
 t<> help his defective memory are elsewhere referred to 
 amounting to no less than 10,000. When casting around for 
 the other causes of his great success one sees thai Lettsom musl 
 have had a certain worldly astuteness to start making such a good 
 income so early and to continue at it for so Long. A hint as 
 to hi- shrewdness is conveyed in the approbation with which 
 he quotes Samuel Fothergill's advice : " Please thy master, and 
 above all please thy mistress." Lettsom, although a keen and 
 independent observer, a ready writer and a frequenter of our 
 Medical Society, never made any striking contribution to medical 
 science. He had no great hospital appointment ; he had no pupils 
 to spread his fame; and he had no position at the Court or in the 
 College of Physicians to give him prestige. His success in practice 
 must have been due to his own personality, his sincerity, his great 
 industry, and his direct influence upon his patients. It is 
 abundantly evident from his letters, that he enjoyed not only the 
 exercise of his art, but the opportunity it gave his broad humanity, 
 to be a real comforter and friend to his patients. In one he writes : 
 " This I know, that I never lost a patient in a family that I did not 
 acquire the whole" family by it," for " I think a humane physician, 
 who evinces by his conduct a tender interest in the recovery of his 
 patient, never loses reputation by an event which no human means 
 could prevent ; on the contrary, often times nearer attachments are 
 acquired." He evidently had the happy knack of getting on easy 
 terms with his patients ; he had Mirabeau's " don terrible de la 
 familiarite," for he writes, " I would rather be familiarly happy than 
 acquire distant veneration" (Letter 9, March 13th, 1783). Being a 
 Quaker, he had no crest or coat-of-arms ; but the motto on his book- 
 plate is Bum Spiras Spes.
 
 32 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM-. 
 
 L ETTSOM 's C HAR ACT ER. 
 
 It was possibly his equable temperament, and his placidity in 
 the presence of disaster, which led to the well-known lampoon : 
 
 " When any sick to me apply, 
 
 I physicks, bleeds, & sweats 'ein ; 
 If after that they choose to die, 
 What's that to nie, 
 
 T Lettsom."* 
 
 This lampoon was evidently widely known. A reference to it is 
 enshrined in the ' Ingoldsby Legends,' in the poem, " The Wedding 
 Day " :- 
 
 " At length, after no little clamour and din, 
 The foul air let out and the fresh air let in, 
 
 They drag one and all 
 
 Up into the hall, 
 Where a medical Quaker, the great Dr. Lettsom, 
 Who's one of the party, ' bleeds, physicks, and sweats 'em.' ' 
 
 * Amongst other versions of this oft-quoted verse are the following : — 
 
 " When patients come to I 
 
 1 physicks, bleeds, & sweats 'em ; 
 Then — if they choose to die, 
 What's that to I— I lets 'em. 
 
 (I. Lettsom). 
 
 and 
 
 " When any patients call in haste, 
 
 I physicks, bleeds, and sweats 'em, 
 If after that they choose to die, 
 Well, then, I Jets 'em. 
 
 " If any folk applies to I, 
 
 I blisters, bleeds, & sweats 'em ; 
 If after that they please to die, 
 Well, then, I lets 'em. 
 
 " I, John Lettsom, 
 
 Blisters, bleeds, & swea's 'em ; 
 If after that they please to die, 
 I, John, lets 'em. 
 
 " You say I'm dead, I say you lie, 
 I physicks, bleeds, & sweats 'em ; 
 If after this my patients die, 
 Why, verily — J. Lets 'em. 
 
 He evidently believed in bleeding, for we read that in 1795, from excessive 
 exertion in his profession, he was attacked with fever, for which he was under 
 the necessity of losing 110 ounces of blood. 
 
 and 
 
 and
 
 HIS COURAGE, SINCERITY AND TACT. '■>'■'< 
 
 His pliability may have led to his being caricatured in the 
 'Westminster Magazine' of September, 17K2, under the title of 
 "Dr. Wriggle or the art of rising in physic." He philosophically 
 refers to this as " Very complimentary ; for what is greater honour, 
 when an enemy professedly attempts to injure you, that you have 
 so lived, as to leave him incapable of saying a had thing of you ? " 
 (Letter 3, October lGth, 1782). Through his long correspondence 
 (here is no hint that he was ever angry with or retaliated on his 
 enemies. On the contrary, by calm reasoning and the soft answer 
 that turneth away wrath, he generally carried conviction and won 
 over his adversary, as is shown by his controversies with the 
 Critical and the Monthly Reviews. Yet Lettsom's early rise and 
 long career, as the leading physician in London, must have excited 
 the envy of his less prosperous, though possibly better endowed, 
 contemporaries, and his success in practice must have stirred the 
 jealousy and malevolence of his colleagues of the baser sort. Yet 
 the fact that, without these endowments, he moved freely in 
 professional circles, an intimate friend of leaders of thought at home 
 and abroad, taking a prominent part in the scientific life and social 
 progress of his country, is good evidence of his own sturdy indepen- 
 dence and well-justified self-regard ; while his acceptation by the 
 profession, and the absence of jealousy and cabals against him, show 
 that he was a good deal more than a merely " fashionable physician," 
 and that the superior persons in our ranks — probably as common in 
 the 18th as in the 20th century — recognised his worth, or miserably 
 failed to thwart his career. This is the more remarkable when we 
 remember that he lived in a generation when bitter controversies, 
 violent quarrels, scurrilous lampoons, abusive language, and 
 passionate insults were as common in the calm of scientific circles 
 as in the public life of the day. 
 
 Lettsom did not seek to escape enmity by fearing to speak out, 
 or by refraining from carrying any project through to a successful 
 end. Yet many of his projects met with violent opposition, abuse, 
 and ridicule, and in his loyalty to them and to his friends he must 
 often have risked damaging his professional career. As a fervent 
 disciple of his friend Edward Jenner he warmly espoused the cause 
 of Vaccination at a time when it was still abused and opposed, 
 with the result that, "in Germany, vaccination had nearly extin- 
 guished the small-pox," and " was more general in every part of 
 Europe than in England." (Fig. 8.) Jenner writes to Lettsom : "I 
 
 c
 
 34 JOHN COAKLEV LEITSOM. 
 
 have considered London as the centre of opposition to the Vaccine 
 practice" (Letter 135, November 23rd, 1811). Evidently this 
 British discovery of medicine, in the 18th century, met with the 
 same reception in its native land as did Lister's in surgery, in the 
 19th century. His support of the Humane Society, his enthusiasm 
 for the improvement of prisons, his divagations into the work of 
 the Philosophical Society, certainly show no self-seeking, did not 
 improve his professional status, encountered strong opposition, 
 and required much courage. His crusade for the Mangel Wurzel, 
 as is seen in Boswell's verses, only exposed him to ridicule. He 
 did not flinch at opposing fashion, or fear to show that he had a 
 frugal mind, when he animadverted upon the practice of wearing the 
 hair powdered, as unnecessarily consuming a vast quantity of flour. 
 He undertook the ungrateful task of exposing quackery. In refer- 
 ence to his attack on the urine-quacks— mentioned in Shakespeare* 
 and still flourishing in the 18th century — Dr. A. Fothergill writes 
 to him:— "Your successful efforts entitle you to the warmest 
 thanks of the public in general, and to the united acknowledgement 
 uf the faculty in particular. For you alone undertook the Hercu- 
 lean task, when you ought to have had the joint assistance of the 
 College and every individual in the faculty, in hunting down this 
 many-headed hydra " (Letter 228, October 27th, 1779). Courage 
 could never have failed him, and it must be due to his maviter in 
 modo that he was able to do so much and yet preserve his position 
 and his friends. An instance of this courage in pyivate life is 
 shown by the charming, delicate, and feeling letter he wrote to his 
 friend Bos well, deploring that " in scenes of pleasure which I have 
 cordially enjoyed .... I have observed, not merely a too frequent 
 use of the glass, but that mixture of liquors which, as a profes- 
 sional man, I can add, tends to injure the best human fabrick " 
 (Letter 219, June 18th, 1791). This effort "to chasten and to 
 moderate the fascinating influence of social pleasure " required 
 courage as well as tact, and was done in such an evidently sincere 
 and friendly way that we are glad to see that Boswell in his reply 
 wrote : " I am not cheerful at present ; the visible wearing away of 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds depresses me much ; and, besides, I have not 
 been so attentive as I should be to your most friendly recommenda- 
 tions as to regimen. Spero meliora " (Letter 220, January 27th, 1792). 
 
 * See Annual Oration on "Shakespeare and Medicine," 'Trans. Med. Soc.,' 
 vol. xxxix, 19L6, p. 279.
 
 FRIENDSHIPS. MAl;l;lKI> LIFE. 
 
 .... 
 
 Friendships. Married Life. 
 
 Lettsom apparently had the gift of friendship and the gentle art 
 of not making enemies. He was on good terms wit li all and sundry 
 in the profession. Although never elected a Fellow, no feeling of 
 
 Fig. 8. — Edward Jenner, Fellow of the Medical Society of London. (See page 33.) 
 (From an engraving by E. S. Scriven, after J. H. Smith). 
 
 resentment at having been passed over prevented him from 
 attending the Royal College of Physicians on October 18th, 1813, 
 to hear the Oration by Dr. Williams of Oxford, and dine with the 
 Fellows. The dinner was doubtless in the afternoon— probably 
 
 c 2
 
 36 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 about three o'clock — for he records that he presided the same 
 evening at the Medical Society. 
 
 Another of his friendly and sociable meetings with his colleagues 
 shows how cordial were his relations with many of them, and also 
 indicates that already, in 1813, Harley Street had commenced to be 
 a resort of medical men. Thus, under the date of December 3rd, 
 1813, he writes in his Diary: "Dined with Dr. Latham, Harley 
 Street, with Drs. Maton, Roberts, and Young — Surgeons Sir 
 Everard Home, Sir William Blizzard, and Mr. Clive, constituting a 
 very interesting and agreeable party." On November 20th, 1813, 
 he dined with Mr. Pettigrew in .Bolt Colt and " passed a pleasant 
 meeting till very late." He was then nearly seventy years of age, 
 but it is evident that he was full of the joie de vivre, ready to 
 please and be pleased, and he seldom refers to a social gathering 
 without commending the " pleasing conviviality " which marked it. 
 
 Had Lettsom been as chaste as ice and pure as snow, we know 
 he could not have escaped calumny. It is the more remarkable 
 that his biographer only finds it necessary to defend his memory 
 from two suggestions. One was because, "by those who were 
 ignorant of his true character, he had been accused of a licentious 
 attachment to the fair sex." This slander is treated as an idle story 
 based on an exaggeration of his enthusiastic attachment to woman- 
 hood. He loved the company and conversation of enlightened 
 women, and this " may account for an unguardedness of behaviour 
 which subjected him to severe censure — he was imprudent, but 
 certainly not vicious." In his sixty-eighth year Lettsom frankly 
 writes that in the society of young women, " in whom the 
 sympathies and tender passions are most predominant, I have 
 always found my mind humanized and improved, for virtue, 
 innocence, beauty, and feminine chaste manners cannot but prove 
 impressive, and produce a feeling of gratification, that is more than 
 human."* He evidently lived on good terms with his wife, 
 possibly all the more faithfully, as they did not see too much of one 
 another ! While he was plunged in his work in London, and 
 living in Sambrook Court, she appears to have passed much of her 
 time at Grove Hill, where " he generally dined on Sundays, and 
 occasionally slept there." This will explain a reference to his wife 
 in one of his letters : "I love her after 14 years' yoking better than 
 in the honeymoon, and, wert thou yoked likewise, I could add 
 
 * ' Diary' of January 2nd, 1813.
 
 HEALTH AND VIGOUR. 37 
 
 something, perhaps new, upon the economy of love. Half the 
 unhappy couples I have seen have been among daudlers, who have 
 always been about their wife's apron-strings — not considering that 
 ' the sweetest honey is loathsome, in its own deliciousness . . .' 1 
 find that those short intervals of my wife's company affords a higher 
 realism of her society, and makes a volatile Creole, in his nature and 
 essence changeable, more fixed to an object where familiarity has 
 not cloyed, and sentiment has not become insipid" (Letter 11, 
 April 19th, 1783). 
 
 The only other charge against Lettsom's character to which his 
 biographer thinks it necessary to reply is that of vanity, and to 
 this he answers : "It is admitted. Where is the individual that 
 could withstand all temptation to vanity, and if he found himself 
 . every day, both in public and in private, the theme of an unanimous 
 applause and approbation. There is little or no harm in a modest 
 indulgence of the universal passion, so long as a consciousness of the 
 rectitude of our motives and the uprightness of our conduct preaches 
 self-reproach." 
 
 Lettsom's Vitality. 
 
 Lettsom's vitality must have been enormous. His diary seldom 
 refers to any bodily weakness ; he may be " very much harassed by 
 charitable applications," or "considerably tired by late hours," 
 but we may judge that his ailments were not serious, as he thinks it 
 worth making the pathetic note, " Had my last tooth drawn to-day 
 by Mr. Heath." This was on December 29th, 1813, in his 69th year. 
 Two days later (New Year's Eve) he writes, " At this period, with 
 gratitude to the author of all good, that my state of health is 
 apparently as good as at any period and my professional engagements 
 have exceeded those of the two preceding years. . . ." Although 
 as early as his 39th year he talks of " the buffetings of his slender 
 habit and weak constitution," yet in his 66th year he writes, " I am 
 as alert as in the days of my youth" (Letter 30, May 15th, 1810). 
 Still he is sufficiently anxious at times about his health to write 
 " I fancy immediately upon illness that I am going to the Majority ; 
 but," he at once adds, "feeling some little comfort in having done 
 something in the world, which persuades me that I shall meet my 
 predecessors with pleasure, I soon sleep my distempers off." He 
 must have been a sound sleeper, for, as I have already narrated, he
 
 38 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 often did not have 20 minutes' leisure in a week ; he passed 19 years 
 in London without a single holiday ; and from the age of 23 he was 
 " in perpetual exertion " in his profession. As an illustration of his 
 vigour in advanced life, his popularity, his zeal in office, and his 
 wide general interests, I would refer to his association with the 
 Philosophical Society of London. He was admitted a Member on 
 .March 10th, 1812 (he was then 68 years of age), and at once took 
 such an active interest in it that in October of the same year he 
 was unanimously chosen President. Although such a busy man he 
 punctually and constantly attended the weekly meetings, and we 
 read that his conduct in the chair, his regulation of the discussion, 
 his useful practical hints, his support of the " juvenile effort " and 
 his " mild conciliatory manners " gave the highest satisfaction. 
 Next year he delivered the Annual Oration and four Lectures on 
 the following subjects: 1. On the Natural History and Medical 
 Qualities of Tea ; 2. On the Injurious Effects of Hard Drinking ; 
 3. On the Natural History and Medical Qualities of Coffee ; 4. On 
 the Substances which have been used to describe Events and 
 convey Ideas, from the earliest date to the Invention of Paper. In 
 1814 he gave two lectures on Mind in Travelling and on the 
 Evolution and Improvement of the Mental and Corporal Powers, 
 and, in 1815, the year of his death, he gave two on the Philosophy 
 of Youthful Sports. 
 
 Death of Letts* oi. 
 
 To such a temperament as Lettsom's death came as he would 
 have wished it — swiftly and mercifully. On October 22nd, 1815 — 
 Waterloo year — he assisted at a post-mortem examination, remaining 
 for two hours in a cold room. Next day he felt chilly and unwell, 
 but this did not prevent him from writing a long letter to his 
 friend Dr. Dixon, of Whitehaven, in which he discussed a variety 
 of matters and, amongst others, the fact that he was preparing for 
 the press a new edition of his 'Naturalist's Companion.' He 
 added, " I am seventy years of age, and I wish it may be in the 
 dispensation of the Author of all good to lengthen me out another 
 year to effect some literary objects before I emigrate ad sedeff 
 cethereas uncle negat redire ijuemquam." (Letter 128, October 23rd, 
 1815.) His wish was not to be granted. On the 25th he wrote 
 a note saying he had had a rigor followed by a dreadful night,
 
 DEATH OF LETTSOM. 39 
 
 lull thai he was up and intent on seeing a few patients. He 
 added, "for the last 27 years I have not been confined by illness." 
 
 Two days later he was urged to see Dr. Babington, but answered 
 "that he should be better in a few days, and that be wished for 
 no one to attend him." His dauntless spirit, in spite of the 
 entreaties of his friends, took him out to see a poor patient in 
 \Y hitecross Street, but on his return he had to be lifted from his 
 carriage, and that evening took to his bed. Even here, and in 
 spite of excruciating pain which prevented him from turning 
 without assistance, he was eager to get reports on his patients, and 
 to make arrangements to be present at the approaching Anniversary 
 of the Philosophical Society, which he was anxious to attend, 
 provided he was only able to sit up, and even if he had to forego 
 the duty of speaking at it. On the following day, October 30th, 
 he appeared improved — possibly in consequence of the unusual 
 though short rest after 27 years at full speed — but, next day, great 
 debility came on, and he died on Wednesday, November 1st, 1815, 
 between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning, ten days after performing 
 the post mortem, and five days after he had been out to visit his 
 last patient. He was in his 71st year. He had warmed both 
 hands against the fire of life, and, when it sank, we can see that 
 he was ready to depart.
 
 40 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSGM AND 
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM. 
 
 M.D. Leyden, June 29th, 1769. 
 Fellow of the Royal Society, 1773. 
 
 Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London, June 25th, 1770. 
 Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London. 
 Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1770. 
 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1768. 
 L.L.D. Cambridge (Mass., U.S.A.). 
 
 Physician Extraordinary to the City of London Lying-in Hospital and to the 
 General Hospital, Aldersgate Street. 
 
 Official Honours. 
 1786. Hon. Member of the Colchester Medical Society. 
 
 1788. Hon. Member of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. 
 
 1789. Hon. Member of the Agricultural Society of Amsterdam. 
 
 1789. Hon. Member of the Bath Agricultural Society. 
 
 1790. Member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Montpellier. 
 
 1790. Hon. Member of the Medical Society, Montpellier. 
 
 1791. Hon. Member of the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh. 
 1791. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. 
 
 1791. Corresponding Member of the Medical Society of Bristol. 
 
 1792. Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Montpellier. 
 
 1793. Honorary Member of the Philosophical Society of Newcastle. 
 1796. Hon. Member of the Medical Society of Aberdeen. 
 
 1813. Hon. Member of the Horticultural Society of Edinburgh. 
 Fellow of the Linnsean Society. 
 
 Honours from America. 
 
 1788. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
 
 1789. Fellow of the Medical Societies of New York and Newhaven. 
 
 1790. Member of the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
 LL.D. University of Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 1791. Hon. Member of the Massachusetts Humane Society. 
 
 1792. Hon. Member of the Medical Society, Massachusetts. 
 
 1792. Member of the Pennsylvanian Society for Promoting the Abolition of 
 Slavery. 
 
 1792. Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
 
 1793. Hon. Member of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society. 
 1795. Corresponding Member of the Historical Society at Boston. 
 
 1798. Hon. Member and one of the Conservators of the Hospital of New York. 
 
 1801. Hon. Member of the Humane Society of Philadelphia. 
 
 1802. Associate of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. 
 
 1803. Hon. Member of the Medical Society of Philadelphia 
 
 1808. Corresponding Member of the Medical Lyceum of Philadelphia. 
 1813. Hon. Member of the New York Historical Society.
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THK MEDICAL SOCIETY 
 
 H 
 
 FOUNDATION' OF THK MEDICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 Fia. 9. — Plaque of the Medical Society, which stood over the door of the Society's house in Bolt Court 
 for 128 years (compare Fig. 11), and is now affixed over the mantelpiece in the present home of the 
 Society. (See page 45.) 
 
 I have completed this sketch of our Founder's life before describ- 
 ing when and how our Medical Society came into existence, and 
 here I can be brief, as the subject has been well dealt with by 
 Mr. George Bethell in his " Account of the Library of the Medical 
 Society of London," printed in vol. xxxvii of our ' Transactions,' 
 1914. 
 
 Lettsom's multifarious writings were frequently issued in the 
 form of short pamphlets to which he gave the title of ' Hints.' On 
 June 23rd, 1773, he issued a pamphlet entitled 'Hints on the 
 Establishment of a Medical Society of London.' The vigour with 
 which he followed up design by action is shown by the fact that 
 the Society was inaugurated that same year, and the com- 
 pleteness with which he planned his scheme is demonstrated 
 by observing that the " statutes " he drew up in 24 pages are 
 in such order and detail that there will be found but trifling 
 points of difference when we compare them with our present 
 Rules of 1 45 years later. After an introduction in which he says
 
 42 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM AM) 
 
 that Societies " excite a generous ardour in liberal minds and raise 
 even envy itself into useful emulation" and that "the principal 
 part of our knowledge must be ever derived from comparing our 
 observations with those of others," he points out the advantages of 
 discussion, the usefulness of honorary rewards, and the virtue of a 
 Medical Library. At first the Society was limited to 30 physicians, 
 30 surgeons, and 30 apothecaries, with a certain number of 
 Honorary and Corresponding Members ('Memoirs of the Medical 
 Society of London,' Vol. I, 1787). We still follow Lettsom's 
 original design in meeting on a Monday, in our Annual Subscription 
 being one guinea, in our method of ballot, the number of our 
 Officers, in the very order of our business, in our two General 
 Meetings annually, in our Annual Oration, and in numerous other 
 details of the Society's regular existence. Naturally, having 
 received the distinction of following the illustrious Lettsom in this 
 honourable Chair, I turned with particular interest to inform myself 
 of his directions to the Presidents of all time. I note that the 
 President "shall regulate all debates, and prevent any from being 
 prosecuted upon trivial subjects," " state and put all questions, 
 according to the intention of the movers " ; " summon all extra- 
 ordinary meetings of the Society, and enforce the execution of 
 their statutes " ; " shall have a second vote when the suffrages 
 are equal," and that "all Members shall pay implicit obedience to 
 the President, in the execution of his office." I do not know 
 whether the formal phraseology of our method of initiating a new 
 Fellow was existent before Lettsom's time, but we strictly follow 
 his direction that " the President shall take him by the hand, 
 saying, 'In the name and by the authority of the Medical Society 
 of London, I admit you a Fellow thereof.' ' The only one of 
 Lettsom's statutes which we appear to have quite neglected is 
 No. 4, Chapter IV, where it is enacted that " the President, whilst 
 in the Chair, shall be covered, except when addressing himself to 
 the whole Society," — as he is shown in Fig. 16, p. 54. These 
 'Hints' as to our foundation are so complete in every detail that 
 they contain one illustration showing our first medal (Fig. 10, p. 43), 
 another of a silhouette engraving of John Fothergill, M.D., to 
 whose memory the Medal is dedicated, and a drawing of the 
 serpent of ^Esculapius coiled round an altar. 
 
 But not only did Lettsom draw up this remarkably complete 
 <lcsign of a Society, and promptly carry it into execution, but he
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 i:; 
 
 supplemented it by a liberal gift <>t several hundred volumes and 
 valuable manuscripts. 
 The early meetings of the Society were held in Lettsom's house 
 
 Fni. 10. First Medal of the Medical Society of London. (See p. 47). 
 
 in Sambrook Court, Basinghall Street, and its first home was in 
 Crane Court, Fleet Street. Here the Medical Society remained 
 until 1788, when Lettsom presented it with the freehold of a house 
 in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, where it was established until 1850 
 (Fig. 11). It is rare for benefactors to make such handsome gifts 
 during their lifetime ; the house in Bolt Court was valued at 
 £2,500. The shifting of the centre of medical life more westward 
 led to our then taking a house in George Street, Hanover Square, 
 and we were finally established in our present house in Chandos 
 Street in 1871. 
 
 Medley's Picture. 
 
 The fine picture in this room shows a group of the Founders of 
 the Society, the central figure being Lettsom standing up in the 
 act of presenting the deeds of our Bolt Court house to the President 
 (Fig. 16). This oil-painting by Samuel Medley is a valued possession 
 of our Society. Medley, it seems, had been under some obligation 
 to the President, Dr. Sims, and in return for the services rendered 
 to him, painted a portrait of his friend (Fig. 15, p. 50). This was 
 so good a likeness that Sims engaged the artist to paint a meeting 
 of the Society. Medley was the better able to execute this as he 
 was the associate and intimate companion of Lettsom, Sims 
 Babington, Blair, Hooper and Jenner. The painting contains 
 22 life-like portraits of our Founders, most of them being the
 
 44 
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM AND 
 
 PIG. 11. -The House in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, presented to the Medical Society byi- 
 John Coakley Lettsom. Note the plaque over the front door. (Cf. Fig. 9, p. 41.) 
 
 leading medical men of the period. It is doubtful if there exists 
 another medical picture containing so many actual portraits of 
 well-known individuals. Edward Jenner is represented standing
 
 THE society's plaque. 45 
 
 close to the left shoulder <>f the President. It will be noticed that 
 his figure is smaller than the others, and somewhat out of per- 
 spective. This is because .Tenner was not one of the original 
 Founders, and did not appear in the picture as originally painted. 
 His portrait, in consideration of his celebrity, was painted in later. 
 This picture was engraved by Nathaniel Branwhite in 1801, and 
 copies of this are still in existence, with Jenner's figure absent. 
 It will be noticed that the President is seated, and, following 
 Lettsom's ' Hints,' he remains covered and is wearing his cocked hat. 
 
 The Society's Plaque. 
 
 We all know the tablet which stands above the mantelpiece in 
 our Library (Fig. 9). It is a bas-relief, beautifully modelled in a 
 clay, on which is stamped " Coade's Lithodipyra," and the date 1787. 
 Inside a carved wooden border is the title " The Medical Society 
 of London " ; beneath this is a draped oval, on which an allegorical 
 group is modelled in relief. In the distance, and forming the 
 background, appears the Great Pyramid of Egypt, skirted by 
 palms. In front of this, and in the centre, the principal figure 
 is that of the goddess, the Isis of Sais, on a pedestal. This 
 goddess is supposed to have been the discoverer of medicine and of 
 the value of drugs. Amongst other functions she presided at 
 births and rocked the cradle of the Nile. In brief, she was Nature. 
 In her left hand she holds a globe and in the right some ears of 
 corn. Crouched on each side of this is a sphinx, emblematic of 
 mystery. A bridge over a river, a temple, a broken column, and 
 an urn on an altar are also represented. On the front of the 
 pedestal is a coiled serpent, representing eternity, and within the 
 circle is the following inscription : — 
 
 Era 
 
 EIMI IIAN TO TErONOS 
 KAI ON, KAI ESOMENON, 
 KAI TON EMON riEnAON 
 OTAEI2 Tin 0NHT0N 
 AnEKAAT^EN, 
 
 signifying " I am what ever is, or has been, and will be ; and no 
 mortal has hitherto drawn aside the veil." 
 
 This identical plaque is the one Lettsom erected over the doorway
 
 46 
 
 .JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM AND 
 
 of our Society's House in Bolt Court in 1788 (Fig. 11), and there it 
 stood the wind and the rain until our Council removed it last year 
 to its present site in the next room.* 
 
 Lettsom must have been much impressed with this emblematic 
 group and with the inscription, for he had an exactly similar tablet 
 erected over the front facade of his house at Camberwell, as we 
 know by a reference to p. 3<3 of the Rev. Thomas Maurice's 
 descriptive poem "Grove Hill." He also introduced a large and 
 particularly good illustration of it on the title page of his ' Life 
 of Fothergill.' In this latter print the figure of the goddess has 
 both arms intact."! 
 
 The house in Bolt Court remained in our possession until the 
 year 1916, when it was disposed of. 
 
 The President's Badge. 
 
 The President's Badge dates from the year 1901, when it was 
 presented to the Society by Sir William Henry Allchin, M.D., 
 during his Presidency (Fig. 12). It is taken from the obverse of 
 
 Pig. 12.— Badge worn by the President of Hie Medical Society. 
 
 the medal illustrated in Lettsom's ' Hints for the Establishment of 
 a Medical Society in London,' written in 1773, and published at 
 p. 257 of Vol. iii of his collected ' Hints ' (see Fig. 10, p. 43). In an 
 
 * Sec ' Trans. Med. Soc. London.' vol. xl, 1!»17, p. xlriii. 
 
 t 'Memoirs of John Fothergill, M.D.,' by John Cotikley Lettsom. 4th ed. 
 London : Printed by C. Billy, 178C.
 
 THE MEDALS <>|< THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 4, 
 
 oval is the figure <>f Hygeia, with the tiame and date of foundation 
 
 of the Society below. Above is the motto " Salnti Augusta;," 
 signifying " For the welfare of London." The old Roman name 
 of our city was Londinium, but in the reign of Valentinium the 
 Elder the official name of London was changed to Augusta. Tins 
 happened A.D. .'56s, on the occasion of the triumphant entry of 
 General Theodosius, afterwards Emperor, into London (Sir Arthur 
 Evans, ' IVoc. Soc. Antiq.,' 1915, Vol. xxvii, p. 105). 
 
 Londini Saluti is the form in which the inscription appears on 
 the crest imprinted on the title page of our 'Transactions.'* 
 
 The Medals of the Society. 
 
 In Lettsom's ' Hints for the Establishment of a Medical Society 
 in London.' written in 1773, there is a plate illustrating the two 
 sides of a medal, with the title " Prize Medal of the Medical 
 Society of London." This doubtless was the first design of the 
 Fothergillian Gold Medal, valued ten guineas. But, in 1784, it 
 was decided that this medal should bear the head of Dr. John 
 Fothergill on one side, and, on the reverse, a *civic wreath ; hence 
 we may look on the medal illustrated in Lettsom's Hints rather 
 as a foundation, or commemoration, medal. It is curious that the 
 Society has never possessed a copy of this medal until the present 
 session, when, through the interest of my friend, Dr. Raymond 
 Crawfurd, one was discovered, wrongly catalogued, amidst a job 
 lot of medals at one of the Red Cross sales at Christie's auction 
 rooms. The Registrar, Mr. Bethell, not only had the good fortune 
 to secure the medal, but also the generosity to present it as a gift 
 to the Society. It is engraved by John Kirk. 
 
 The obverse of the medal, as already described, is almost 
 identical with the President's Badge. We have not been able to 
 discover why the bust of Queen Caroline should appear on the 
 reverse. 
 
 The Fothergillian Medal, " in gold of ten guineas value," was 
 founded by Lettsom in a letter addressed to the Fellows of the 
 Society on May 25th, 1784. This medal was afterwards perma- 
 nently endowed by Dr. Anthony Fothergill, who left £500 to the 
 Society for that purpose. This Dr. Fothergill was not related to 
 
 * ' Tran?. Med. Soc. London,' vol. xxxix, 1916, p. xhiii.
 
 48 
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM ANT) 
 
 his namesake, Lettsom's friend and protector, on the anniversary 
 of whose birthday (March Sth, 1712), the medal is adjudicated.* 
 
 PIG. 13.— John Fothergill Medal. 
 
 In 1791 Lettsom himself won the prize essay for the Fother- 
 gillian Gold Medal with a thesis in reply to the question, " "What are 
 the Diseases more prevalent in great Towns 1 and what are the bes 
 
 1 - ' S i i s j ■ ■ - s 
 
 Fin. 14.— Anthony Fothergill Medal. 
 
 means of obviating them 1 and the history of Epidemics for at 
 least one year ?" He delivered the Annual Oration in 1778, choosing 
 as a subject ' History of the Origin of Medicine.' This was reprinted 
 at the request of the Society, and the quarto volume of 170 pages, 
 which I here exhibit with illustrations, copious foot-notes from 
 
 * " A Note on the Fothergillian Medals of the Medical Society of London," 
 hy John Langton and George Bethell, ' Trans. Med. Soc. London,' vol. xxviii, 
 1905, p. 336.
 
 II1K EARLY DAYS OF THE MEDK LL SOCIETY. I!» 
 
 100 authors,* and an index, will demonstrate the reading ami 
 
 research he must have devoted ti> this difficult subject.* Hi' said 
 he had to deliver this Oration at short notice, hut was able to effect 
 it by the facility with which he could, refer to his 40,000 notes! 
 How did he manage it in those days before card-filing systems wen- 
 invented .'t This History was so appreciated that it was translated 
 and published in French in 1787. On March 8th, 1804, he again 
 delivered the Annual Oration, "On the Origin of Vaccine Inocula 
 tion with a Biographical account of Dr. Jenncr," to whom the 
 Fothergillian Gold Medal was then presented. 
 
 Early Days of tin-; Society. 
 
 So the Medical Society was founded, and I would refer those 
 interested in its early years to consult the article by Mr. Bethell 
 and the Oration on the subject of " The Old Founders and the New 
 Honorary Fellows," delivered by Dr. E. Synies . Thompson on 
 May 1st, 1882. It would appear that these years were not free 
 from anxieties, caused chiefly by petty jealousies leading to financial 
 difficulties. Thus, the first.year's income was only £73 : it fell later 
 to £22 ; and in the year the Bolt Court premises were presented 
 (1788) it reached £418. Compare this with our income of 
 £1,587 6s. Id. in 1915. In 1800 a number of books were bought 
 from the President, Dr. James Sims, for the large sum of £500, 
 the Society also engaging to pay an annuity of £30 to Dr. Sims 
 and his wife. This Dr. Sims was a native of County Down 
 (Fig. 15). He probably had the political talent which Irishmen 
 appear to develop when they leave the Emerald Isle, for he 
 managed to be re-elected President for a period of 22 consecutive 
 years, i.e. from 1786 to 1809. Medley's painting shows him in the 
 Presidential Chair, and' the portrait of the good-humoured, pleasant 
 
 * Reviewing this Oration, the ' Monthly Catalogue ' tor July, 1779, writes : 
 •' Our Medical Historian has rendered his oration equally instructive and 
 amusing, hy numerous anecdotes and quotations, in the form of notes ; and by 
 a still more numerous list of references, which evince an immense share of 
 multifarious reading, well digested and applied." 
 
 f My friend, Mr. J. Y. W. MacAlister, the Secretary of the Royal Society 
 of Medicine, writes to me that card indexes were designed and used long before 
 our American cousins brought them to our notice. The original cards, in 
 the handwriting of the French abbe who invented them, are still in use in 
 the Bibliotheque Rationale in Paris (circa ? 1740). 
 
 (I
 
 50 
 
 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM A.ND 
 
 and sagacious face looking out below his cocked hat agrees with 
 what we know of his character. (Fig. 16, p. 54.) His constant re- 
 election, indeed, proved unfortunate for the Society, and led to the 
 secession of a number of influential Fellows and tlie formation in 
 
 Fig. 15. — Dr. James Sims, President of the Medical Society of London for 22 years, \i/.. 
 
 1786-1808. Seep. 55. 
 i From an engraving by X. Branwhite, after a picture by S, Medley.) 
 
 1*05 of the Royal Medical and Ghirurgical Society, the predecessor 
 of the Royal Society of Medicine. However, Dr. Lettsom— who had 
 already been President in 1775 — broke down Dr. Sims' retention 
 of the Chair and was again President both in 1*09 and LS13.
 
 THE TRANSACTION OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY'. 51 
 
 In 1850 the Society perpetuated the name <>f our Founder by 
 establishing the Lettsomian Lectures. 
 
 The Society's 'Transactions.' War Records. 
 
 The published records of the Society's work appeared under the 
 title of ' Memoirs ' or 'Proceedings,' and, later on, under the present 
 one of 'Transactions.' We find they exist from 1787 to 1805, and 
 from 1810 to 1817, but between these two periods there is a hiatus. 
 Subsequently there appeared only one volume in 1846 and another 
 in 1861. The publication of the 'Transactions' was resumed in 
 1*72, and they have appeared annually ever since. 
 
 T<> the 'Memoirs' and ' Transactions ' of our Society Lettsom 
 made no less than 27 contributions ('Life,' vol. i, p. 136). 
 
 As our 'Transactions' covered the period of the Peninsula anil 
 Waterloo campaigns, I looked through them to see in what way 
 they reflected the military medicine and surgery of the period. I 
 confess to considerable surprise in not finding a single communica- 
 tion referring to the wars in which our country was then engaged. 
 This is striking when we remember that, in the Session of 1915-16, 
 every single communication made to the Society was on a war 
 subject, with the one exception of the Annual Oration by myself 
 on " Shakespeare and Medicine." But it is also noticeable that the 
 Boer War is reflected in our "Transactions" by one solitary com- 
 munication on ' Typhoid Fever.' This shows that our previous 
 wars have been of the nation's life a thing apart — the present 
 world war embraces our whole existence. 
 
 Records of the Deaths of Shakespeare and Nelson. 
 I had occasion last year in " Shakespeare and Medicine," to point 
 out that our Society possesses the only record of the' nature of the 
 death of our national poet.* It is curious that we also possess a 
 record of the death wound of our national hero, Nelson. The 
 Minute Book of the Medical Society for December 23rd, 1815, 
 contains the following,—' ' A letter was read by Dr. Gillespie from 
 the surgeon on board ' The Victory,' who dissected the wound of 
 the late Admiral Nelson, describing the progress of the musket ball. 
 It passed through the left shoulder, penetrating one lobe of the lung, 
 
 * " Shakespeare and Medicine," by Sir StClair Thomson, ' Trans. Med. Soc.,' 
 vol. xxxix, p. 258 (1916). 
 
 ll 2
 
 52 John goakley lettsom am> 
 
 and, after perforating the vertebrae, was lodged in the surrounding 
 muscles." 
 
 Surgeon W. Beatty (afterwards Sir William Beatty) was the 
 surgeon on board H.M.S. "Victory" and subsequently in 1807 he 
 published a book with the title 'Authentic Narrative of the Death 
 of Lord Nelson, with the Circumstances Preceding, Attending and 
 Subsequent to that Event. The Professional Report of his Lord- 
 ship's Wound, and Several Interesting Anecdotes.' 
 
 The Latin Form of Nomination. 
 
 In our early clays, Latin was the official language of the Society. 
 We are fortunate in possessing a copy of the form of nomination 
 in use at the end of the 18th century. It is dated 1789, and is 
 addressed to Mr. William Vyse, Surgeon, at Spalding in Lincoln- 
 shire, and has been presented to us by that gentleman's great- 
 grandson, Dr. Christopher Vise, of Tunbridge Wells, now serving 
 with the Army. He represents the sixth generation of medical men 
 in one family, is one of our Fellows, and is present here this 
 evening. The Latin form is printed, and the translation accom- 
 panying it is in the handwriting of William Chamberlain, the 
 celebrated obstetrician whose name is well known in connection 
 with the invention of midwifery forceps.* 
 
 * " Viro Celeberrimo Guieluio Vyse, Chirurgo Prases 
 
 " et Societas Medica Londinen^i~. S I'D. 
 
 " Noininis Tui fama, tot ac tanta, quse in Arte nostra illustranda, proino- 
 venda, ainplificanda edidisti speciniina, nos impulerunt, ut in sociorum 
 exterorurn, quos Correspondentes vocant, numeruin Te adscriberemus ; id quod 
 die Lunse, tertio Augusti, 1789, factum esse praesentes testantur litterse. Quare 
 benigno accipe animo hoc arnicitise et reverentise nostrae erga Te testimonium 
 at.pue pro benevolentia Tua, ea, quse ad artis incrementum aliquid conferunt, 
 nobiscum communica. Vale ac nobis fave 
 
 " GrULIELMUS ChASIBERLAIKE, 
 
 "ad epistolis ad exteros. 
 " Londini, 
 
 ■ Kx aedibus Societatis, 
 
 " Bolt Court, Fleet Street, 
 
 " Die Martis, 4to Augusti, 1789." 
 
 Translation. 
 
 " The President and Members of the Medical Society in London wish much 
 health to the moat renoun d William Vise, Surgeon. 
 
 " The greatness of your reputation, in so many and great instances, which 
 you have given in illustrating, promoting and enlarging our art, have indue' 1
 
 NIK TRANSACTIONS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. •">•"> 
 
 ( <>\i i.i 8ION. 
 
 The rest of the chronicles of the Medical Society, and all that it 
 lias done, are they not written in the handsome volumes of the 
 'Transactions'-— a storehouse of interest and instruction to all our 
 members? In this sketch of our Founder I hope I have succeeded 
 
 in -i lengthening the loyalty of all Fellows to the oldest Medical 
 Siniety in London, and in conveying to your minds the attractive 
 picture of the character of our Founder which I have received from 
 a perusal of his life and letters. It is well summarised by his 
 biographer, who describes Dr. John Coakley Lcttsom as "good, 
 humane, benevolent. Though himself not learned in the highest 
 acceptation of the term he was the friend and the patron of 
 learning." "I have lost in him the sensible, firm and upright 
 friend, the able, honest and experienced physician, and the 
 pleasing, instructive companion of a social hour." Our Society 
 need seek for no better exemplar. 
 
 Bibliography Consulted. 
 
 Thomas James Pettigrew, 'Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the 
 late John Coakley Lettsom, with a Selection from his Correspon- 
 dence.' In 2 vols. London, 1817. 
 
 John Coakley Lettsom, 'Memoirs of John Fothergill, M.D.' Fourth 
 Edition. London, printed by C. Dilby, 1786. 
 
 Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, 'Selections from the Medical Papers and 
 Correspondence of the late John Coakley Lettsom, M.D. : London, 
 Longman, Hurst, Pees, Orme, and Brown, 1817. 
 
 John Coakley Lettsom, ' Hints designed to promote Beneficence, 
 Temperance, and Medical Science.' 3 vols. London, J. Manman, 
 1801. 
 
 Philip Main-waring Johnston, ' Transacs. London and Middlesex 
 Archaeological Society,' September 20th, 1913. 
 
 ns. to admit you into the number of our absent Members, whom we call 
 Correspondents ; which this present Letter testif vs was done on Monday, the 
 3d of August, 1789. Wherefore receive kindly this testimony of our friendship 
 and regard for you, and out of your good will communicate to us any occur- 
 rences that conduce to the improvement of the Art. Farewell and think well 
 of us. 
 
 " GrULIELMTTS CliAMBERI.AI Mi. 
 
 " London, 
 
 • Bolt Court, Fleet Street. 
 
 " Tuesday. 4th of Aug.. 1789."
 
 54 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM AND 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF 
 
 LONDON. 177.!. 
 
 (From the painting by Samuel Medley.)* 
 
 For many of the biographical notes of the 22 medical worthies 
 whose portraits appear in this valuable picture, I am indebted to 
 the Annual Oration delivered before the Society by Dr. E. Symes 
 Thompson on May 1st, 1882. (See Fig. 16.) 
 
 1. Dr. John Coakley Lettsom is seen standing to address the 
 Fellows. He may be in the act of presenting the lease of his 
 house in Bolt Court to the Society (Fig. 11, p. 44), or he may 
 be giving the record of the life of Dr. John Fothergill, to whom 
 he was so much attached, or he might be delivering the Oration, 
 which he did both in 1778 and again in 1804. If it represents 
 him in the first year of the Society's existence, he would then be 
 29 years of age. It will be noticed that he wears a bob-wiff, 
 unpowclerecl, that his clothes are of sober cut, and his stockings 
 of plain style and material. 
 
 2. The handsome figure seated on Lettsom's left hand is that of 
 Sir John Hayes (1750-1809), whose white silk stockings form so 
 prominent a feature in the forefront of the picture. He was a 
 person whom Medley, the artist, used to speak of as " the most 
 finished courtier of his acquaintance." Born at Limerick, he 
 graduated at Rheims. Then he distinguished himself as an army 
 surgeon, and became Physician to the Forces and L.R.C.P. in 
 
 * The artist, Samuel Medley, was born in 1769 and died in 1857. He was 
 the son of the celebrated Baptist minister, Samuel Medley, and became a 
 painter of religious and historical subjects. Subsequently he took up portraiture, 
 in which department of his art he obtained considerable reputation. His health 
 suffered from Ins sedentary work and he therefore gave up art, in 1805, and 
 took to the Stock Exchange. At the latter occupation lie was successful and 
 made a large fortune. Medley was an active man outside Ids professional 
 occupations, and he is known as one of the Founders of University College, 
 London. His eldest daughter married Henry Thompson and became the 
 mother of the late Sir Henry Thompson, F.R.C.S., well known as an artist nnd 
 exhibitor at the Eoynl Academy, in addition to being Surgeon to University 
 College Hospital. He resided the latter part of his life at Chatham and died 
 there.
 
 i To face p. r,4.)
 
 TUB FOUNDERS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 55 
 
 1784. In I7'.M he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the 
 Prince of Wales, and in the following year Physician to the 
 
 Westminster Hospital. lie was created a baronet when IT years 
 of age, and died 12 years after of acute laryngitis. In St. .James 
 Church, Piccadilly, under the north gallery, there is a small mural 
 tiblet to his . memory. Letters and despatches from Sir Ralph 
 A.bercromby, Lord Moira, Lord Southampton. Mr. Huskisson, and 
 others, now in the possession of the family, show how much the 
 success of the llavannah campaign was due to the untiring devotion, 
 skill, and energy of Sir John (then Dr.) Hayes. 
 
 •'$. Dr. James Sims (1741-1820) is rightly represented in the 
 Presidential Chair, for he possessed to an extraordinary degree the 
 power of ruling the elections of the Society, and managed to he 
 re-elected President during a period of 22 years (Fig. 15, p. 50). 
 His constant re-election, indeed, proved unfortunate for the Society, 
 and led to the secession of a number of influential Fellows, and the 
 formation in 1 805 of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, which, 
 in 1907, became merged in the Royal Society of Medicine. Dr. Sims 
 was born in County Down in 1741, attended the metropolitan 
 hospitals, and studied at Edinburgh, but, like many of his con 
 temporaries, took his degree at Leyden. His success in practice as 
 an accoucheur was greatly due to the recommendations of Lettsom, 
 with whom he established the Royal Humane Society. He was 
 Physician to the Aldersgate and Surrey Dispensaries, and wrote 
 much, as our ' Transactions ' testify. For instance, one day he 
 recorded a rare case of abscess above the clavicle, communicating 
 with the lung, so as to blow out a candle. His chief writings are 
 ' Observations on Epidemic Disorders, with Remarks on Nervous 
 and Malignant Fevers,' a ' Discourse on the Best Method of 
 Prosecuting Medical Inquiries,' and ' The Principles and Practice 
 of Midwifery.' He drew attention to the value of nitrate of silver 
 in epilepsy and chorea, giving it iu doses of gr. i, bnt stated that 
 he had heard of a physician in town who gave it to the extent of 
 18 grains a clay. In 1795 he spoke of the value of arsenic iu 
 intermittent fever, and of elaterium in dropsy. He was a good- 
 humoured, pleasant man, as his sagacious face would suggest, full of 
 anecdote, an ample reservoir of good things, and for figures and 
 facts a perfect chronicle of other times. He had a most retentive 
 memory, but, when that failed, he referred to a compendium of 
 knowledge in the shape of a pocket-book, from which he quoted
 
 ;•(-, JOHN (OAKLEY LETTSOM ANH 
 
 with oracular authority. In the first year of the century our 
 Society purchased from Dr. Sims a large number of books for the 
 sum of £500, and engaged to pay an annuity of £30 to I>r. Sims, 
 and afterwards to his widow, should he pre-decease her. Probably 
 no medical society ever expended so large a sum at one time in the 
 purchase of books from a private library. 
 
 4. Dr. Thomas Bradley (1751-1813), being deaf, placed himself 
 as near to the President as possible, and is shown standing on his 
 right in his accustomed attitude, with a hand behind the ear so as 
 to concentrate the sound. He was born in Worcestershire, and 
 there for years conducted a school where mathematics — in which he 
 w as proficient— were specially taught. Retiring from scholastic- 
 life he took his degree at Edinburgh, settled in London, and became 
 Physician to the Westminster Hospital. He was for years the 
 editor of the ' Medical and Physical Journal.' His deafness, his 
 retiring habits and scholarly life, unfitted him for metropolitan 
 practice, to which he proved unequal rather from diffidence than 
 from lack of professional knowledge. He always hesitated in draw- 
 ing conclusions from uncertain premises, and appeared to little 
 advantage in the sick room. 
 
 5. Immediately behind Dr. Thomas Bradley stands J AMES Ware, 
 F.R.S. (1756-1815). We are reminded of his interest in ophthalmic 
 surgery by his gold-rimmed spectacles. He was celebrated for 
 extracting cataract with a success that, it is said, had rarely been 
 equalled. He wrote several works on ophthalmology, and founded 
 the School for the Indigent Blind. 
 
 6. Edward Nathaniel Bancroft, M.D., F.R.S. (1772-1842), is 
 at the extreme left in the picture of the three figures standing on 
 the President's right hand. Born in London in 1772, he graduated 
 Bachelor of Medicine, Cambridge, in 1794. In the following year 
 he was appointed Physician to the Army and, in this capacity, 
 served in the Windward- Islands, in Portugal, the Mediterranean, 
 and Egypt. Returning to London in 1804, he qualified as Doctor 
 of Medicine, and was elected F.R.C.P. Lond. in 1806. He was 
 censor in 1806. He was elected 1'hysician to St. George's Hospital 
 in 1808, but retired, owing to ill-health, in 1811, and proceeded to 
 Jamaica as Physician to the Forces. Dr. Bancroft died there in 
 1812. He was the author of a number of works on Yellow Fever, 
 the ' Philosophy of Permanent Colours,' and was an authority on 
 botany and natural history. He wrote upon the subject of the
 
 Mil-: FOUNDERS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. . r . , 
 
 'Medical Department of the Army,' complaining of the distinction 
 between the physician to the forces and army surgeon. He wat 
 ,i strong opponenl of t h<> theory of spontaneous generation of 
 disea • 
 
 7. Dr. Joseph Hart Myers ( L758-L823), the Librarian, is seated 
 t<» the extreme left of the picture. Born of Jewish parents in New 
 York, he was sent to London at an early age, and commenced his 
 medical studies by attendance at the lectures of William Hunter 
 and Dr. George Fordyce. From London he went to Edinburgh, 
 where he took his M.D. in 1779. Elected L.K.C.P. Lond. in 1787, 
 he >ettled in London, and was appointed Physician to the Portu- 
 guese Hospital and the General Dispensary. He died June 1st, 
 1825. 
 
 8. The thoughtful, earnest face of Dr. WILLIAM WOODVILLE 
 (1752-1805), whose peruke is well shown in the picture, calls for a 
 few words. He is seated, with his legs crossed, on the left side of the 
 picture below Dr. Myers, but nearer the spectator. Born at Cocker- 
 mouth in 1752, he took his M.D. degree in Edinburgh in 1775, and 
 first practised in his native county of Cumberland. He settled in 
 London, 1784. and was elected Physician to the Smallpox and 
 Inoculation Hospitals. He was an accomplished botanist, and in 
 the gardens of the Smallpox Hospital near King's Cross, two acres 
 in extent, he cultivated his hobby, and worked up with artistic 
 accuracy the illustration for his work "on ' Medical Botany,' published 
 in four quarto volumes in 1790-94. He has left us valuable works 
 on smallpox, but his great botanical work is still consulted with 
 profit and pleasure. William Woodville was Secretary of the 
 Medical Society in 1784, when Lettsom established the gold medal 
 as a memorial of Dr. Fothergill, to be given on his birthday 
 (March 8th). His letter acknowledging the gift is printed at the 
 end of Lettsom's life of Fothergill. At first Woodville was 
 vigorously opposed to Jenner's great discovery of vaccination, but 
 the opportunity afforded by the Medical Society to bring them 
 together was used by Jenner to argue and remonstrate with him. 
 The discussion appears to have been conducted with much heat. 
 Both, however, were equally engaged in seeking after truth, and 
 our Society was the meeting ground which enabled Jenner to 
 convert Woodville from a strong opponent to an active supporter. 
 He vaccinated multitudes of people, some thousands of whom "he 
 afterwards tested by variolous inoculation, and thus gave the
 
 58 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM AND 
 
 public a confidence in vaccination which could not otherwise have 
 been attained. Dr. Woodville cultivated the society of his pro- 
 fessional friends, by whom he was much esteemed. He died of 
 dropsy in March, 1805, and, being a Quaker, was buried in the 
 same Friends' burial ground as our founder Lettsom. John Bunyan 
 and other nonconformists are buried near by, at Bunhill Fields. 
 
 9. Dr. Nathaniel Htjlme (1732-1 807\ who sits next Dr. Wood- 
 ville, was a vigorous Yorkshireman, who took the M.D. Edinburgh 
 in 1765, at the age of 33, and was appointed Physician to the 
 Charterhouse and L.R.C.P. in 1774. He was also an F.R.S. He 
 died at the age of 75 from a fall from the top of his staircase to the 
 basement. He wrote works on the prevention of scurvy, recom- 
 mending lime-juice, a remedy which, ho stated, had been known 
 since the sixteenth century. He also wrote on puerperal fever, 
 on gout and stone. The epitaph in Charterhouse Church states that 
 " he practised medicine during a long course of years with advantage 
 to his patients and honour to himself." 
 
 10. Dr. Sayer Walker (1748-1 826), who sits immediately behind 
 the white-stockinged figure of Sir John Hayes, was a colleague of 
 Dr. Hulme, at the London Lying-in Hospital. He was at first a 
 Presbyterian Minister at Enfield, then, when 44 years of age, took 
 the Aberdeen M.D. and, after 20 years of obstetric practice, retired 
 to Clapton and died in 1828. He wrote treatises on 'Nervous 
 Diseases ' and on the ' Diseases of Women. 1 He was the first to 
 give turpentine in Taenia, and stated at a meeting of this Society 
 that it had proved successful in his hands in 90 cases. 
 
 11. Edward Jenner (1749-1823; stands immediately on the 
 President's left (compare Fig. 8, p. 35). It is interesting to notice that 
 this portrait was absent from the original picture when first engraAed. 
 After Jenner's grand discoveries (in 1796) had received the acknow- 
 ledgement of the Society, and he had been elected to the Fellowship, 
 it was thought right to add the portrait of one so distinguished to 
 the existing picture. This was accordingly done, but copies of the 
 engraving by Branwhite are still in existence, in which Jenner's 
 figure is absent. It will be noticed that he is put in the background, 
 and that his figure is on a somewhat smaller scale than the others. 
 From the very first year of our Society's existence, when Dr. Lettsom 
 read a paper on " Inoculation," that subject held a prominent place. 
 In 1801, Dr. Jenner was himself present on several successive 
 evenings, when cow-pox occupied the attention of the Fellows.
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF THE MEDiOAL SOCIETY. 59 
 
 Jenner had been a Corresponding Fellow for 12 years, when in 
 1802 he was elected an ordinary Fellow ; and in tlic following year 
 the value of his discovery to the world was expressed in a highly 
 appreciative memorial drawn up by the Society. 
 
 It would be of interest, while speaking of .Tenner, to give an 
 account of vaccination, and the important function our Society 
 fulfilled in aH'onling an opportunity for full and frequent discussion 
 in every stage of the controversy ; but this has been done with 
 great care and completeness by Dr. Cholmeley. The reproach of 
 having undervalued, or having been slow to appreciate the value of 
 Jenner's work, cannot be passed upon our Founders ; although the 
 tardy recognition of it by the Houses of Parliament, who voted him 
 only £10,000, and years after £20,000 more, may, by the light of 
 subsequent events, deserve that reproach. 
 
 12. Dr. Robert Hooper (1773-1835), as Secretary, sits at the 
 President's left hand. He was M.D. of St. Andrews, and practised 
 in Savile Row. From time to time he brought many interesting 
 cases before the Society. He mentioned that of a man who had 
 a pitchfork driven into his head for 4 inches and speedily got 
 well ; and of another person who quickly recovered after having 
 nearly half his cranium taken off in the riots of 1780. He wrote 
 on Intestinal Worms, and edited a medical directory. 
 
 13. Mr. Edward Ford (1746-1809) who sits next but one to the 
 President's left hand, read a paper in November, 1779, on "Loss of 
 Voice Cured by Electricity." This method of treatment was taken 
 up by Dr. Hooper, who, in 1783, and again in 1787, reported cases 
 of periodic headache cured by electricity, with particulars of animal 
 magnetism. He wrote a valuable work on diseases of the hip-joint. 
 
 14. Of the four who sit in the back row, to the right of the picture, 
 the one nearest to Lettsom is Dr. John Haighton (1755-1823). 
 He was an accomplished anatomist, physiologist, physician, and 
 accoucheur. His knowledge of the physiology and diseases of the 
 uterus was so superior that he gave this part of Mr. Cline's anato- 
 mical lectures by the latter's particular desire. He was one of 
 those practitioners who were prosecuted by the Royal College of 
 Physicians for exercising his art without a licence. Dr. Haighton's 
 defence was that he would willingly submit to the strictest exami- 
 nation and pay the fees, but that he refused to withdraw from 
 practice, reside for two years at a university, and attend lectures 
 delivered by men much his inferior in every department of
 
 60 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSO.M AND 
 
 medicine. He began life as a surgeon in the Guards, then became 
 Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Borough School of Medicine and 
 Lecturer on Physiology, and for many years he was regarded as 
 the ablest teacher of midwifery in Europe. He was physician to 
 the Eastern Dispensary for some years, until obliged to relinquish 
 it on account of the extent of his practice. His manners were 
 abrupt, and his temper petulant, and to this his friends attributed 
 the fact that he never entered the state of matrimony. He suffered 
 from chronic laryngitis, and published a series of experiments on the 
 laryngeal and recurrent branches of the eighth pair of nerves ; also 
 experimental inquiries on the reproduction of nerves and on animal 
 impregnation. His papers in the early volumes of the ' Transac- 
 tions ' of our Society, viz., three on " The Causes of Vomiting," are 
 full of original ideas, and the freshness and vivacity of their 
 arrangement is quite what might be expected from a man having 
 ' the alert— not to say " wide-awake " — look which the artist Medley 
 has so skilfully rendered in the picture. 
 
 15. Dr. E. J. Thornton (1768-1837) sits second in the back row- 
 to the right, resting his chin on his hand. He took an active part in 
 promoting Jenner's views. He wrote ' A Vindication of Small-pox,' 
 and a work in five volumes on ' The Philosophy of Medicine.' His 
 best known works are his ' Practical Botany ' and ' British Flora.' 
 His face is one of remarkable intelligence. In October, 1806, he 
 related before the Society a case in which he showed much vigour 
 and fertility. He was called to a man who had hung himself with a 
 silk pocket-handkerchief. The doctor applied a common bellows to 
 one nostril, thus filling his lungs with air. Then he applied boiling- 
 water to the stomach, which immediately produced a convulsive 
 groan and gasp. Mustard was then applied to the nostrils and 
 a cataplasm to the feet, then a blister to the thorax, and after that 
 leeches. The patient recovered and had suffered no pain ! 
 
 16. Next to him is seated Mr. John Shadwell. 
 
 17. Dr. John Aiken (1747-1822) sits on the extreme right of the 
 picture. His face is certainly a remarkable one. His wig, it will 
 be noticed, is innocent of powder. He was little fitted bj r temper 
 or habit for the fatigue and struggle necessary for success in town 
 and he willingly and wisely followed the bent of his disposition, 
 and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He settled at first at 
 Chester, next at Warrington, and afterwards at Yarmouth, but, 
 while there, being an ardent Dissenter (son of a Dissenting 
 
 .-
 
 NIK POUNDERS OF THE 'MEDICAL SOCIETY. 61 
 
 Minister), he took an active part in the political agitation con- 
 nected with the repeal <>f the Test Act, and was so opposed by the 
 clergy, with whom he had previously been popular, that he found it 
 wise to move to London. His medical works were not so. large or 
 numerous as his general ones, e.g., 'Evenings at Home,' the 
 'General Bibliographical Dictionary,' 'Monthly Magazine,' 'The 
 Annual Register,' etc. He was the biographer of Howard, the 
 philanthropist, and saw much of him at Warrington. Dr. Aiken, 
 as well as Lettsom, acted in concert with Howard in ameliorating 
 the condition of prisons. 
 
 18. Mr. WILLIAM Blair (1766-1822), who stands behind Lettsom, 
 to the right of the picture, with the celebrated Dr. Babington at 
 his side, has a classical profile and a look of alertness befitting so 
 distinguished an operator. He was Surgeon to the Lock Hospital 
 as well as to the Finsbury and Bloomsbury Dispensaries. He 
 brought a case before the Society in which, a piece of meat having 
 stuck in a person's throat, he used probangs without effect ; but, by 
 injecting tobacco into the bowel, he induced vomiting and thus 
 removed the obstacle. In another case he performed cesophagotomy 
 with success. In 1805 he gave details of a rare case of hernia in 
 which ascitic fluid escaped through a puncture in the tunica 
 vaginalis. He edited with others a ' System of Surgery,' and also 
 edited the ' London Medical Review and Magazine.' 
 
 19. Dr. William Babington (1756-1833) stands behind Lettsom, 
 the nearest figure to the top right hand corner of the picture. He 
 was born and educated in Ireland, but completed his professional 
 course at Guy's, and was early appointed on the staff of the Haslar 
 Hospital. Being called upon to attend the prisoners of war at 
 Winchester he caught jail fever, and narrowly escaped with his life. 
 After five years of military work he became Apothecary to Guy's 
 and Lecturer on Chemistry, and under the advice of Dr. Saunders 
 (who sits in the arm-chair nearer the spectator) he took the 
 Edinburgh M.D. degree, and in the same year was elected Physician 
 to Guy's. His progress as a physician was rapid, and he very soon 
 had an extensive city practice, so much so that in 1811 he was 
 compelled to resign his hospital appointments. For many years 
 Dr. Babington was the acknowledged head of the profession in the 
 city. He was universally beloved and respected. Dr. Gooch wrote 
 of him as a " man who, to the cultivation of modern sciences, adds the 
 simplicity of ancient maimers ; whose eminent reputation and rare
 
 62 JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM AXI» 
 
 benevolence of heart have long shed a graceful lustre over the 
 profession which looks up to him with a mingled feeling of respect, 
 confidence and regard." He died in Devonshire Street in 1833, 
 aged 77, of influenza. His statue was erected in St. Paul's 
 Cathedral by public subscription. The inscription on this monument 
 is by the pen of Dr. Paris, the President of the Eoyal College of 
 Physicians. Dr. Eabington was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and 
 one of the founders of the Geological and Hunterian Societies, and 
 was one of the best mineralogists of his time. 
 
 The name of Babington is of particular interest to myself, in 
 common with all who practise laryngology, for his son came near to 
 inventing the laryngoscope. In the year 1829 Dr. Benjamin Guy 
 Babington showed his " glottiscope " to the Hunterian Society of 
 London.* This consisted of a laryngeal mirror, very similar to those 
 used at the present day, on which he concentrated the sun's rays by 
 means of a common hand looking-glass. , There are no cases 
 recorded in which Babington's glottiscope was employed, although 
 he used it on many patients, and a method which depended on so 
 uncertain a luminary as the sun — at least, in this climate — could not 
 be expected to secure any general adoption. Another objection was 
 that it demanded the use of the operator's two hands, the right one 
 holding the laryngeal mirror, while the left manipulated the hand- 
 ghiss. Still, in realising that the one mirror would suffice for 
 reflecting light downwards into the larynx, and also for receiving 
 the image of the parts thus illuminated, Babington made a great 
 advance on all previous efforts in this direction, and thus, by 
 26 years, he anticipated Garcia's invention of the laryngoscope in 
 1855.1 
 
 20. Close behind Lettsom, seated in the lower row, we see 
 E. Charles Combe (1743-1817), who was educated at Harrow, and 
 secured the friendship of Dr. William Hunter. He practised as an 
 obstetric physician, being elected to the British Lying-in Hospital 
 in 1789. His attainments as a scholar and antiquary, and his taste 
 in numismatics, were generally known and appreciated. He was 
 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1776, and, amongst other 
 
 * ' The Use of the Laryngoscope,' by Morell Mackenzie, M.D. 3rd Edition, 
 1871. London : Longmans, Green and Co., p. 12. 
 
 f StClair Thomson, " The History of the Laryngoscope," ' The Laryngoscope,' 
 xv, March, 1905, p. 177; Wilks and Bettany, ' Eistory of Guy's Hospital,' 
 London, 1892, p. 235.
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY. 63 
 
 works, he brought out, conjointly with Mr. Homer, Fellow of 
 Emanuel College, Cambridge, a splendid edition of 'Horace' in 
 two volumes, and said to contain the best index to the works of 
 Horace which has ever appeared. He died at his house in 
 Vernon Place, and was buried in Hloomsbury Cemetery, Brunswick 
 Square. 
 
 21. Next to Coombe is John Relph. He was entered on the 
 physic line at Leyden, in March, 1778, and graduated M.D. there 
 in the same year. He became L.R.C.P. in 1784, and Physician to 
 Guy's, 1789. He wrote a work on "Peruvian Park," and died in 
 Mark Lain; in 1804. 
 
 22. Dr. William Saunders (174:; 1817), who sits in the arm- 
 chair near the right-hand corner of the picture, the last of the 
 22 Founders, was physician to the Middlesex and afterwards to 
 St. Thomas's Hospital. Like Relph, who was from Cumberland, 
 Saunders was a north countryman. He served his apprenticeship 
 at Penrith, anil was then a pupil at St. Thomas's. He became an 
 army surgeon, and, when peace was established, he settled at 
 Penrith and took the MJ). of Aberdeen. He went again with the 
 regiment to Minorca, and, while quartered in Edinburgh, attended 
 medical lectures there. He then went to America and was promoted 
 to the rank of physician to the army, which he served with great 
 credit to himself and benefit to the troops. After the successful 
 expedition against Havannah he returned home with broken health. 
 He, however, regained strength during a tour in France and Italy. 
 Dr. William Saunders became L.R.C.P. in 1765 and settled in 
 practice in London, and, in the following year, was appointed 
 physician to the Middlesex and, in 1768, to St. Thomas's Hospital. 
 When 51 years of age he married an heiress and gave up his 
 hospital appointments to Dr. Reynolds, of Guildford. Three years 
 later his wife died, and his own health broke down, but he did not 
 relinquish practice altogether. He was elected F.R.C.S. in 1784. 
 He left two daughters. The elder became Viscountess Melville 
 and the younger Countess of Westmoreland.