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.

    307/320 (page 287)
    try, to those of London, the scepticism of the metropolis has spread over the country; and, in consequence, these fearful pleasures are at an end. Of late, also, a spirit of legislation has seized some of its members of the medical profession ; and a vain hope has been cherished, that, by the profession submitting to self-imposed fet- ters, their rank in society may be improved, a spirit favoured by others, who hope to profit by it. And both these parties have joined in a great outcry, respecting poisons and frauds in drugs, &c,, in order to further their own ends, at a time when improved mental acquire- ments and superior civilization have rendered that crime, or even accidents arising from poi- sons, less frequent than ever; when, notwith- standing the general prevalence of republican opinions in England, our sovereigns no longer require the gentlemen of their chamber, or the maids of honour, to kneel by their sides to take assay, as it was called, of every dish they intend to eat, by swallowing the first slice or spoonful, as was done, even in the golden days of good Queen Bess. A German chemist in London, laying hold of the artificial state of excitement in which the public mind was kept,—an excitement which has succeeded to the apprehensions occasioned