My doctors / by a patient ; with frontispiece by G. DuMaurier.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: My doctors / by a patient ; with frontispiece by G. DuMaurier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    But as I already possessed a choice collection of prescriptions, I did not think it necessary to add to my collection of curios in this respect, and I remembered to forget the appointment. A curious story is told of this Dr. Blakesley, who for once, and for a very good reason, departed from his rule of simplicity of diet. A man in a bad state of health told the story of his ailments to the apparently sympathizing Doctor. “ You cannot be too careful in what you eat and drink. What you take ought to be of the best,” said Blakesley. This was language with which the sufferer concurred in the most genuine way. “ I can only allow you two meals a day, a first and a second dinner. At' the first you will eat nothing but crab, and at the second only pate de foie gras. Come again in a month.” The patient promised obedience. It is perfectly wonderful that in the nineteenth century patients should render such an absolute obedience to their Doctor as they would not render to lawyer or parson. This extraordinary diet was persevered in, and with the happiest results. At the end of the month the patient was greatly improved. “The fact of the matter is,” the Doctor drily explained, “ that, like a very large proportion of the human race, you eat a great deal too much. Pate de foie gras and crab are very good things, but I defy any human being to eat very much of them day after day. My simple object was to cut down your food, and the abstinence has done you good.” One day I was sitting in a well-known restaurant at