The Gold headed cane and its author, William Macmichael / by Francis R. Packard.

  • Packard, Francis Randolph.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Gold headed cane and its author, William Macmichael / by Francis R. Packard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    determined to introduce it to her fellow countrymen. Whilst professional and public opinion was yet weighing its efficiency, Caroline, Princess of Wales, nearly lost one of her children by an attack of smallpox. She was desirous of having her other children inoculated, and obtained from King Oeorge the First pardons for six condemned criminals on condition of their submitting to be inoculated. Five of the felons contracted the disease; the sixth who concealed having previously had the smallpox was not infected. At Mead’s suggestion, a seventh criminal, a girl of eighteen, was subjected to the experiment by the Chinese method, which consisted of introduc- ing into the nostrils a tent soaked with the matter taken from ripe pustules. The girl contracted the disease and recovered. The Cane relates an oft repeated story which shows Mead’s powers of observation leading to an innovation in practice of permanent value. It was frequently observed that in cases of persons with dropsy, when tapped and the effusion suddenly drawn off, the patient swooned and often died with great suddeness. Mead determined to replace the pressure of the fluid thus suddenly with- drawn by external means and devised the expedient of placing a broad bandage around the abdomen which was gradually tightened as the fluid was removed. The Cane relates that it was frequently present and saw this method used, “more especially in the case of Dame Mary Page, wife of Sir Gregory Page, Bart., who was afflicted with this disease. *** In sixty-seven months she was tapped sixty-six times, and had two hundred and forty gallons of water taken away, without ever once fearing the operation.” These details are carefully recorded on a monument to this lady in Bunhill Fields cemetery. In Mead’s time political feeling was at fever heat. Although he was an ardent Whig, he numbered the Tories Garth, Arbuthnot and Freind among his intimate associates. When the latter was imprisoned because of his supposed implication in the Atterbury plot for the restoration of the Stuarts, Mead visited him in the Tower, and secured his release in the following remarkable manner. Sir Robert Walpole was taken ill and sent for Mead. The latter availed himself of the occasion to plead Freind’s cause. The latter was a member of Parliament and his chief offense, seems to have lain in some intemperate speeches. Mead extenuated these, spoke of Freind’s public services as a physician to the British army in the Spanish expedition and in Flanders, of his erudition and his scientific attain- ments, and finally refused to prescribe for the Prime Minister unless he liberated him, which he accordingly did. The evening following there was a great assembly of guests at Mead’s house all anxious to