Neuralgia.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neuralgia. 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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    CHAMBERS’S EDINBURGH JOURNAL. •tter, ho knew to be white arsenic. At another time, 3 liad two partridges sent him by the court, and water id onions being the sauce, Mrs Turner put in cantha- des instead of pepper; so that there was scarce lything that he did eat but there was some poison lixed.’ * It is impossible to believe that the human frame ould stand out for weeks against so hot a siege. It ould appear as if Pranldin must really have confessed JO much. It has already been said, that the confused ;ate of the whole evidence renders it difficult to find ow fur a case ivas made out against the Earl and ouutess of Somerset. Such a confession as Franklin’s illy makes matters still more confused. That Sir honias Overbury really was poisoned, one can scarcely oubt, if even a portion of what Franklin and the others ;iy is true; but the reckless manner in which the :ime was gone about, and the confusion of the whole •yfidence, is extremely perplexing. Not the least emarkable feature in this tragedy is the number of eople concerned in it. We find, brought to trial, the .arl and Countess of Somerset and Sir Thomas Monson, ho, though said to be the guiltiest of all, were spared: Veston, Franklin, and Mrs Turner, were executed: brman, and another man of science who was said to ave given aid, had gone to their account before the •ials came on. Then, in Franklin’s confession, it was :ated that ‘ the toothless maid, trusty Margaret, was cquainted with the poisoning; so was Mrs Turner’s lan, Stephen; so also was Mrs Horne, the countess’s wn handmaid; ’ and several other subordinate persons re alluded to in a similar manner. Tlie quietness and secrecy of the French and Italian oisonings have been already alluded to. The poisoners, 1 general, instead of acting in a bustling crowd, gene- illy prepared themselves for their dreadful task by ’cretly acquiring the competent knowledge, so that ley might not find it necessary to take the aid of onfederates. They generally did their work alone, or t most two would act together. It certainly argues a idly demoralised state of society in the reign of lung ames, that so many persons should be found who 'ould coolly connect themselves with the work of eath; but still there was not so much real danger as 1 the quiet, systematic poisonings of such criminals as 'ophana and the Countess of Brinvilliers. Tlie great }yer of poisoning was, however, calculated to make a ery deep impression on the public mind. It filled london with fear and suspicion. When rumours about oisonings become prevalent, no one knows exactly how ar the crime has proceeded, and this and that event is emembered and conneeted with it. All the sudden eaths within recollection are recalled, and thus accoimted or. People supposed to be adepts in chemistry were in reat danger from the populace, and one man, named jamb, was literally torn to pieces by a mob at Charing- !ross. The people began to dwell upon the death of ’rince Henry, the king’s eldest son, who had fallen addenly. It was remembered that he was a youth of frank, manly disposition—the friend and eompanion f ^leigh and of other heroic spirits. He liked popu- Jrity, and went into many of the popular prejudices of le times—forming altogether in lus character a great ontrast to his grave, dry, fastidious, and suspicious rother Charles, who was to succeed to his vacant l^c. He had died very suddenly—of fever, it was aid; but popular rumour now attributed his death ) poison. Nay, it was said that his own father, Jaloqs of his popularity, was the perpetrator; and it •as whispered that this was the secret which King ames was so afraid his favourite Somerset might tell : prosecuted to death. In a work called Truth brought ) Light, a copy was given of an alleged medical report ■n a dissection of the body, calculated to confirm these * SlaU Trial!, 041. !%=■ : /■: 399 suspicions : it may be found in the State Trials, ii. 1002. Arthur Wilson, who published his life and reign of King James during the Commonwealth, said : ‘ Strange rumours are raised upon this sudden expira- tion of our prince, the disease being so violent that the combat of nature in the strength of youth (being almost nineteen years of ago) lasted not above five days. Some say he was poisoned with a bunch of grapes ; others attribute it to the venomous scent of ^ pair of gloves presented to him (the distemper lyint for the most part in the head.) They that knew neither of these are stricken with fear and amazement, as if they had tasted or felt the efiects of those vio- lences. Private wliisperings and suspicions of some new designs afoot broaching jiroiihetical terrors that a black Christmas wreuld produce a bloody Lent, &c.’ Keunet, in his notes on Wilson’s work, says that he possesses a rare copy of a sermon preached while the public mind was thus excited, ‘ wherein the preacher, who had been liis domestic chaplain, made such broad hints about the manner of his (Prince Henry’s) death, that melted the auditory into a flood of tears, and occasioned his being dismissed the court.’ But suspicion did not stop here. When King James himself died in much pain, his body shewing the un- sightly symptoms consequent on his gross habits, poison was again suspected ; and as it had been said on the former oecasion, that the father had connived at the death of his son, it was now whispered that the remaining son, anxious to commence his ill-starred reign, was accessoiy to hurrying his father from the world. The moral character of Charles I. is sufficient to acquit him of such a charge. But historians even of late date have not entirely acquitted his favourite, Buckingham, who, it was said, finding that the king was tired of liim, resolved to make him give place to the prince, in whose good graces he felt secure. The authors of the scandalous histories published during the Commonwealth, said that the duke’s motlier administered the poison externally in the form of a plaster. NEURALGIA.* Obstructives and sceptics are in one sense benefactors ; although they do not generally originate improved modes of thought and action, they at least prevent the adoption of crude theories and ill-digested measures. To meet the critieism of these opponents, inventive genius must more carefully bring its ideas and plans to the test of praetical experiment and thorough inves- tigation; and as truth must ultimately prevail, it cannot be considered unjust or injurious to insist upon its presenting its credentials. This is, we submit, one of the benefits resulting from schools, colleges, and guilds: it is difficult to impress them with novel truths; but in a great degree they act as breakwaters to the waves of error. In no department of social life is this doctrine better illustrated than in the medical profession, wliich is among the keenest and most scep- tical of bodies in scrutinising novelty; but it has rarely allowed any real improvement to remain per- manently untested and unadopted. We believe this to bo the fair view to take of a class of scientific men who have certainly had a large sluire of sarcasm to endure. General readers, for whom we profess to cater, take no great interest in medical subjects and discussions • but as historians of what is doing in the world of art’ science, and literature, we think it our duty to record’ in a brief way, any information we can collect that may * , ,ts various J^'orms, Valholagy, and Treatment, ’JSrn Prize EBsay of tho Royal College of SiirgcoiiB w IJ Adiiitions. By C. Toogoed Downing, M.l)., M.U.C.S. London. °