A STUPID FALLACY. 71 by a continuance of the system, I am sanguine in being enabled to eradicate the enemy, and as far as I can judge, without any the slightest risk in bringing on other complaints. I live moderately, and though allowed by the doctor a glass or two of sherry,* I have given even that up from choice, and really feel not the slightest desire for any such stimulant; — although at home I have been in the habit of taking aperient medicine almost daily, I have required none whatever here. I shall be happy to communicate any further information, and remain, Dear Sir, Dr. Cameron. THOMAS CASE. Thus you see, doctor, that water is not so ineffectual with respectable patients affected with gout. * Lest any one should suppose from the above, that I indulge my patients with wine, it is necessary to remark that permission was given only for a day or two, the conviction. on my mind from past experience being, that the patient would of his own accord relinquish the stimulant in that period- so rapidly and certainly does the stimulus of water supersede that of wine, and convince at the same time, from the contrast in the feelings both moral and physical of the individual, that to take wine is a misfortune, and a stupid fallacy. I may add, that Mr. Case has forgotten to mention the operation of the douche, and sitz baths, &c., which he took in the course of the treatment, and which assisted in the beneficial result. 72 DUPES AND MONOMANIACS AGAIN. But listen again to the following, which came to my hands while I was writing the above, from Mr. Warwick of this place, to whom the letter was written by a former patient of mine, who, among so many, had almost escaped my memory. Previous to making certain inquiries from Mr. Warwick, he writes thus: SIR, London, October 26, 1842. Having received so much benefit while at Malvern, under Dr. Wilson's treatment for gout and rheumatism, I am anxious for my fellow-sufferers to derive as much benefit as their constitutions will admit. Not knowing any one at Malvern, it struck me that you would give me the required information for apartments for a gentleman, his lady and servants. He has been a martyr for many years to that worst of all complaints. He has everything except health, &c. &c. &c. Upper Brook Street. Signed, C. C. Here, then, is another patient who, by his recommending his friends to come hither, is evidently not so dissatisfied with the Water-cure, and does not give so lugubrious an account of it as your patient did. Be it remembered, however, that this gentleman had not had the gratifying opportunity of being convinced by you that he 66 UNBLUSHING EFFRONTERY. 73 was a gull, an incorrigible dupe, stupid, a fool, and a monomaniac." But he is happy in his ignorance and the cessation of his complaints. After satisfying you that I am not committing the devastation among gouty patients you would desire to make appear, I will now answer an insinuation which you have put forward with the most impudent and unblushing effrontery. You desire to fix upon me the imputation of purposing "to cast a shade on the brightness of the halo which surrounds the imperishable name of Astley Cooper," and wish your readers to believe that the celebrated appeal of that great man, which I quote in my "Water-cure," is a pure fabrication of my own, trusting to my hitherto preserved silence. Now so far was it from my intent, in quoting the passage, to throw the smallest taint on the character of my old teacher, that I thereby considered I was paying the best compliment my poor means afforded to his professional honesty, and disinterested solicitude for the lives of his fellow-creatures. And in order there should be no mistake on this point, I will treat you and all who read this with a repetition of his manly appeal. The words are these: Extract from the "Water-cure," p. 14. “I will not attempt to solve this difficulty, but sub 74 LIVES DESTROYED BY CONSUMPTION. mit to the reader the following extract from Sir Astley Cooper's last course of lectures-a gentleman whose authority is of the greatest value, and whose loss cannot be too much regretted : Extract from Sir Astley Cooper's Lectures. "In the first place, gentlemen, let me observe to you, that no greater folly, and indeed cruelty, can be committed than that of giving mercury to patients for the cure of this disease. A man who gives mercury in gonorrhoea really deserves to be flogged out of the profession, because he must be quite ignorant of the principles on which this disease is to be cured. To give mercury to a young and irritable person, who is probably constantly exposed to vicissitudes of temperature, for a disease which does not require it, (thus exposing the health, and even the life of the patient to danger,) is, in the present state of our knowledge, perfectly unpardonable. It is lamentable to reflect on the number of lives which must have been destroyed by consumption and otherwise, in consequence of the imprudent exhibition of mercury for a disease which did not require it, which prevailed among the older surgeons. At the present time, however, a surgeon must be either grossly ignorant, or shamefully negligent of the duty which he owes to the character of his profession, and to the common dictates of humanity, if he persists in giving mercury for this disease. Let those persons who suppose that it can be cured by mercury, go round our wards, and see whether mercury has any effect on that disease. Look, gentlemen, at a hundred patients in our lock wards, many of whom come into the hospital with syphilis and gonorrhoea; and many, I am sorry to say, who have INFAMOUS MERCURIAL TREATMENT. 75 only gonorrhoea, but who are invariably carried to these wards. What is the miserable treatment of these patients? You are aware, gentlemen, that I scarcely ever enter the lock wards of the other hospital; when a particular case demands my attention, I have the patient removed to a clean ward. I will tell you why I do not enter these wards, gentlemen: I abstain from entering them, because patients are compelled to undergo so infamous a system of treatment, THAT I CANNOT BEAR TO WITNESS IT. To compel an unfortunate patient to undergo a course of mercury for a disease which does not require it, is a proceeding which reflects disgrace and dishonour on the character of a medical institution. No consideration shall induce me to repress my feelings on this subject; no authority shall restrain me from giving full expression to those feelings. As long as I continue a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, I will endeavour to do my duty; but I care not if I continue a surgeon of that hospital another day. I do say, that the present treatment of patients in these hospitals, by putting them unnecessarily under a course of mercury for five or six weeks, is INFAMOUS AND DISGRaceful. The health of a patient is, perhaps, irremediably destroyed by this treatment; and, after all, not the slightest effect is produced by it on the disease. If he is cured, he must be cured by other means. If you go to a patient in these wards at the end of his course, and ask him how many times he has used mercury, he will generally answer twenty-eight times. If you ask whether he is salivated, he will tell you that he spits three pints a-day; but ask whether his disease is cured, and he |