The Gold-Headed Cane. 281 



but beyond that time no physic can protract your Majesty's 

 existence.'* This daring prediction was accomplished in 

 1702, when a curious glimpse is afforded to us of the prac- 

 tice of that period, and of Dutch, French, and English art 

 vainly struggling to prolong the life of a monarch. 



" In addition to many other infirmities under which the King 

 laboured, he was troubled with boils that formed in different parts 

 of his body ; and for these Bidloo directed that his feet and legs 

 should be rubbed night and morning with flannel covered with 

 powder of crabs' eyes, flour, and cummin-seed. As to diet, the 

 doctor was exceedingly indulgent, allowing his master to drink 

 cider, ale— in short, all sorts of strong beer ; and to take crude 

 aliments before going to bed. It was in vain that Doctors Hutton, 

 Millington,Blakemore,and Laurence, remonstrated. On the King's 

 return to Hampton Court, the dropsical swelling of the inferior 

 extremities extended upwards, for which Bidloo prescribed a 

 vapour-bath, and inclosed the legs of the patient in a wooden box 

 constructed for that purpose. In a constitution so weak, which 

 this treatment was reported to have still more debilitated, an ac- 

 cident was likely to prove fatal. On the 27th of Februt^ry, 

 1702-3, while hunting, the King fell from his horse, and broke 

 his right clavicle near the acromion. This occurred in the 

 neighbourhood of Hampton Court; but the French surgeon Ron- 

 jat was at hand, and soon reduced the fracture. But when he 

 wanted to bleed his Majesty, a new obstacle arose, for it was 

 necessary not only to have the sanction of some one of the court 

 physicians, but also the authority of the privy-council, for the per- 

 formance of that operation. Notwithstanding the necessity and 



advantage of rest, the King persisted in his wish to return to 

 Kensington, where he arrived between nine and ten o'clock in the 

 evening: here a discussion arose between Bidloo and the surgeon, 

 as to whether there had been really any fracture or not. Ronjat 

 stoutly maintained the affirmative; the Dutch doctor as stoutly 

 denied it. This point was, however, at length settled, when a new 

 difference of opinion occurred as to the mode of applying the 

 bandages. Bidloo wished himself to apply them, but the surgeon 

 said no ; — ' you are here either in the character of a physician or 

 in that of a surgeon : if the former, you have nothing to do 

 with bandages ; if the latter, " c'est moi qui suis le premier 

 chirurgien du Roi." ' After the death of the King, a paper war 



took place on the one hand Bidloo put forth 



a pamphlet, published at Leyden, written in Low Dutch, in order, 

 as his enemies said, that few might read it in this country: the 

 year after, M. Ronjat entered the field in a French reply." — 

 p. 24—26. 



The cane is next carried by Mead, — perhaps the greatest 

 physician who ever flourished. The students who feel a 

 APRIL— JUNE, 1827, U 



