The unlicensed medical practitioner : a sketch from life.

Date:
[between 1850 and 1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The unlicensed medical practitioner : a sketch from life. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    is speedily melted by the entreaties of his tiny customer. So far as pharmacy is concerned, in this “ lowest depth ” we find a “ deeper still.” Dr. Coalman, who is not recognised by the college, refuses to take cognisance of the “ medical chest,” a travel- ling Dispensary on wheels, which has recently set- tled down upon a piece of waste ground, formerly the site of an oyster stalL It is strictly a “ chest,” being about eight feet every way. The professional gentleman who o*cupies the chest, only sees one patient at a time; and how he manages to see that solitary person at any hour, without a caudle, is one of those mysteries upon which time may pos- sibly throw further light. The herbalists, a distinct but numerous class in every humble neighbourhood, next claim our at- tention. Some of them affect long beards, and endeavour, by speaking bad English, to pass them- selves off for “ professors ” from some German college; but the trick is too palpable, and is generally detected by the boys, who make them objects of derision. A free exhibition of tape-worms in the window affords much interest to those young medical students, and the police have no little trou- ble in keeping the pavement clear from obstruction. What the elastic mind of youth is incompetent to grasp, is the enormous length of these reptilia. We are afraid to say how many yards long some of them are, nor have we been able to learn by diligent inquiry whether they are manufactured by machine or by hand. Antiquated and adust-looking, these old herbal- ists are deeply read in botanical lore. Some of them publish “Guides to Health,” which, when they are not quite unintelligible, from queer gram- mar and spelling, are often instructive, and always amusing. Who ever dreamt of such medicinal virtue as they ascribe to a common encumber? (Cucitmis hortensis). “ Outwardly applied,” writes one of the herbivorous literati, “ the juice makes the skin smooth and fair, and, being taken for some con- siderable time, it perfectly cures the scurvy in a bad habit of body. The essence is an excellent stomachic, being much pleasing and gratifying to the viscera, if inilamed or overheated. The dis- tilled water is good to cool the hot distemper of the liver and blood, to quench thirst, cool the heat of fevers, and take away the dryness and roughness of the tongue. Outwardly used, it cools inflamma- tions, helps blood-shot redness of the eyes, clears, cools, and smooths the skin, and is good against most deformities thereof, being often applied there- to.” Between the general practitioner and the vender of herbs war is continually raging. The latter denounces all men who deal in minerals (for medi- cinal purposes), and paints in fearful colours the slaughter perpetrated with legal sanction by the “ Apothecaries’ Company.” If you ask him what he thinks of iodide of potassium for rheumatic affec- tions, he will tell you it is an accumulative poison, and that those who take it drop down like exhausted sheep; and he will pledge his reputation that the only certain cure for complaints of that kind is— oil of cabbage. The principal admirers and sup- porters of these vegetarians are elderly females suffering from that distressing malady, the nerves. To alleviate their afflictions, the professor has I* all kindsof teas—raspberry,strawberry, blackberr ■ mint, camomile, and we know not how many moi He condoles with them, tells them how 1 five and twenty years he suffered from a nervo ^j disorder, which threw him into convulsions if & only heard the creaking of his own shoes. Tl professor abjures animal food in any form; an - although he draws his dietetic supplies entire from the shelves which furnish the medicamer; for his patients, the variety of “dishes at 1 command is marvellous. If a Parisian chef cuisine could only see the number of difie < ent “ grasses” in the Vegetable Carte he wow draw his nightcap over his eyes in astonis ment. So deeply imbued with respect for medic science, and so eager to avail themselves of benefits, are the inhabitants of most poor district that they not only support such dispensaries we have already described, but maintain nun rous itinerant apothecaries. With a box of si:i pies slung before them, the particular practitiom. referred to occupy the margin of the causewi and, having no settled connection, depend for the subsistence upon the infirmities of casual invalio A sort of guerilla warfare is carried on by the, light troops against the insidious ills which fle is heir to. A rheumatic twinge is scared away the mere presentation of a medicament, and indigestion very often shot down on the rot One of the most distinguished of these shai k shooters, to whose remarks on pathology therapeutics we have long listened with pleasi and advantage, is an elderly man with a blr patch over one eye, and a greasy leathern cr looking something like a decayed ostler. He not a mere empiric, but has evidently made t j|y constitution of man his systematic study. “ K tnr,” he says, holding up a bit of stick-liquorr “ delights in miisture, as, for instance, on a su mer’s night, when there’s a fall of do. The airtb: full of miisture—hence we have springs and river: bubbling and running about in all directions; a; as for the sea, that, of course, is miisture itsi Now, if you chew a bit of this here root, it w keep your mouth as miist as a well of wate, etc. We remember some years ago a very intelligc though meanly-clad man, who used to deliver fresco lectures on physiology, and which, for lu . exposition and graphic illustration, were really < serving of attention. As he was a zealous ad', cate of temperance, he did much good in humble vocation, and we much regretted the c cumstances under which he disappeared from pn lie life. He was addressing an uncultivated 1 deeply interested audience, at the corner of a ] pulous thoroughfare, and was describing with wonted clearness the organs of nutrition, a showing the pernicious effects of alcoholic stiir lants, when a drunken bricklayer, who fancied remarks perhaps rather too personal, sudde. made a rush at the coloured diagrams which, I tached to a stick, the lecturer exhibited to mi 11 miM H his explanations more intelligible, and tore th> | in pieces with an expression of savage delip. f which elicited veils of indignant reprobation fr' f all beholders, the poor lecturer uttered not awe I of reproach, but, heaving a deep sigh, buttoi: {