Volume 1

Professional anecdotes, or ana of medical literature.

Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Professional anecdotes, or ana of medical literature. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    302/320 (page 282)
    Systems, to which the human mind is so prone, are in this profession peculiarly dangerous. During the reign of Lewis XIV. it was the fashion in France, and in many parts of Europe, to bleed the patient in every disease, whatever might be its symptoms or nature. Madame de Sevigne, in her Letters, speaks of the Chevalier de Grignan, a relation of the family into which her daughter had married, who was seized with the small-pox of the most malignant kind, and attended with putrid symptoms. The physi- cians immediately had recourse to their favourite remedy of blood-letting, the repetition of which the patient, from the dreadful aggravation of the sufferings which he experienced, in vain endea- voured to resist. After having been bled eleven times, he yielded to the attacks of the doctor and the disease, and expired a victim to obsti- nacy and ignorance. DR. WARD, AND HIS OIL OF VITRIOL MANU- FACTORY. This well-known nostrum-monger was cer- tainly well-acquainted with the practice of che- mistry and pharmacy, but very little is known of his life. From a mark on his face, he was known by the name of Spot Ward ; a fine statue of him is