1680. "The English Physician has promised the King (Louis XIV.) in so positive a manner, even on the forfeiture of his life, to cure his Highness (the Dauphin) both of his vomiting and his fevers, that if he should fail, I believe, on my conscience, they would throw him out of the window; and on the other hand, should his predictions prove as true in this case as they have done in most others that he has had the management of, I shall be for having a temple erected to him, as to a second Esculapius. It is a pity that Molière is dead; he would make an excellent scene of Daguin" (first physician to the King), "who is put at his wits' end at not being possessed of the panacea, and the rest of the tribe, who cannot tell what to make of the experiments, the secrets, and the almost divine prognostications of this little foreigner. The King will have him make up his medicines in his presence, and trusts the management of the Prince wholly in his hands. The Dauphiness is already much better, and yesterday the Count de Grammont saluted Daguin with the following stanza : "Talbot est vainqueur de trépas, Daguin ne lui résiste pas, La Dauphine est convalescente, Que chacun chante, &c."1 Talbot cured the Dauphin, and received 2000 louis d'or for the secret, besides an annual pension of 2000 francs. Having become rich, Talbot became respectable; he was knighted, and, as Sir Richard, received the honours of a splendid funeral, and a monument at Cambridge. There can be no question that Talbot had a strong tinge of the quackish element. Still, we must do, him the justice of admitting, that he was not a false pretender to knowledge, like most quacks: his offence was against the minor morals of his profession. He evidently attempted 1 Lettres de M. Sevigné. Letter dated Nov. 8, 1680. The to decoy the profession from the right scent, and to make people think that he had discovered specifics of his own, when he was only using preparations of the bark. style in which his book is written is enough to condemn him. "First administer," he says, "a convenient dose of a specified emeto-cathartic powder (which was communicated to me by the name of Febrifugum Reverii). It is composed of three Herculean medicines, each of them requiring twelve several labours in their preparations to which is added a fourth, which is not unfitly called Athletica; because, like a powerful champion, it dissipates and expels all Nature's enemies, &c., &c., &c.”1 This is the jargon of quacks in all times. And not less distinctive is the following warning against all shops but his own :-" Let me advise the world to beware of all palliative cures, and especially of that known by the name. of Jesuit's powder, as it is given by unskilful hands; for I have seen the most dangerous effects follow the giving of that medicine uncorrected and unprepared."-And who can correct and prepare it, except me, Richard Talbot! And so he played his part. It is refreshing to pass from the career of Sir Richard Talbot to that of Sydenham. Thomas Sydenham was born at Winford-Eagle, his ancestral property, in the county of Dorset, in the year 1624. He was of what is called a good family. At the age of eighteen years he went to Oxford, where his elder brother William was a gentleman commoner. When the civil war broke out, it is most probable that he served in the army, on the side of the Parliament; it is certain, that his two brothers did, the one as a Colonel and the other as a Major. In November, 1644, Sir Lewis Dives was beaten by Major Francis 1A Rational Account of the Causes and Cure of Agues, with their Signes, Diagnostic and Prognostic; also, some Specific Medicines prescribed for the S 1680. "The English Physician has promised the King (Louis XIV.) in so positive a manner, even on the forfeiture of his life, to cure his Highness (the Dauphin) both of his vomiting and his fevers, that if he should fail, I believe, on my conscience, they would throw him out of the window ; and on the other hand, should his predictions prove as true in this case as they have done in most others that he has had the management of, I shall be for having a temple erected to him, as to a second Esculapius. It is a pity that Molière is dead; he would make an excellent scene of Daguin” (first physician to the King), “ who is put at his wits' end at not being possessed of the panacea, and the rest of the tribe, who cannot tell what to make of the experiments, the secrets, and the almost divine prognostications of this little foreigner. The King will have him make up his medicines in his presence, and trusts the management of the Prince wholly in his hands. The Dauphiness is already much better, and yesterday the Count de Grammont saluted Daguin with the following stanza "Talbot est vainqueur de trépas, Daguin ne lui résiste pas, La Dauphine est convalescente, Que chacun chante, &c."1 Talbot cured the Dauphin, and received 2000 louis d'or for the secret, besides an annual pension of 2000 francs. Having become rich, Talbot became respectable; he was knighted, and, as Sir Richard, received the honours of a splendid funeral, and a monument at Cambridge. There can be no question that Talbot had a strong tinge of the quackish element. Still, we must do, him the justice of admitting, that he was not a false pretender to knowledge, like most quacks: his offence was against the minor morals of his profession. He evidently attempted 1 Lettres de M. Sevigne. Letter dated Nov. 8, 1680 The to decoy the profession from the right scent, and to make people think that he had discovered specifics of his own, when he was only using preparations of the bark. style in which his book is written is enough to condemn him. "First administer," he says, "a convenient dose of a specified emeto-cathartic powder (which was communicated to me by the name of Febrifugum Reverii). It is composed of three Herculean medicines, each of them requiring twelve several labours in their preparations: to which is added a fourth, which is not unfitly called Athletica; because, like a powerful champion, it dissipates and expels all Nature's enemies, &c., &c., &c."1 This is the jargon of quacks in all times. And not less distinctive is the following warning against all shops but his own:-"Let me advise the world to beware of all palliative cures, and especially of that known by the name of Jesuit's powder, as it is given by unskilful hands; for I have seen the most dangus effects follow the giving of that medicine uncorrect can correct and prepare it so he played his part. 1680. "The English Physician has promised the King (Louis XIV.) in so positive a manner, even on the forfeiture of his life, to cure his Highness (the Dauphin) both of his vomiting and his fevers, that if he should fail, I believe, on my conscience, they would throw him out of the window; and on the other hand, should his predictions prove as true in this case as they have done in most others that he has had the management of, I shall be for having a temple erected to him, as to a second Esculapius. It is a pity that Molière is dead; he would make an excellent scene of Daguin" (first physician to the King), "who is put at his wits' end at not being possessed of the panacea, and the rest of the tribe, who cannot tell what to make of the experiments, the secrets, and the almost divine prognostications of this little foreigner. The King will have him make up his medicines in his presence, and trusts the management of the Prince wholly in his hands. The Dauphiness is already much better, and yesterday the Count de Grammont saluted Daguin with the following stanza : "Talbot est vainqueur de trépas, La Dauphine est convalescente, Que chacun chante, &c."1 Talbot cured the Dauphin, and received 2000 louis d'or for the secret, besides an annual pension of 2000 francs. Having become rich, Talbot became respectable; he was knighted, and, as Sir Richard, received the honours of a splendid funeral, and a monument at Cambridge. There can be no question that Talbot had a strong tinge of the quackish element. Still, we must do, him the justice of admitting, that he was not a false pretender to knowledge, like most quacks: his offence was against the minor morals of his profession. He evidently attempted 1 Lettres de M. Sevigné. Letter dated Nov. 8, 1680. |
