282 The Gold-Headed Cane. 



generous pride in their profession will pause with pleasure 

 over the numerous and shining passages which here delineate 

 his habits, his qualities, and his conversation. A very good 

 account is given of the precautions which he recommended 

 against the plague, afterwards adopted by an act of parlia- 

 ment; — of his experiments on, and recommendation of, 

 inoculation ; — and of his introduction of the plan of ban- 

 daging after the operation of tapping. In a trying moment, 

 Mead evinced that his heart was even more exalted than his 

 understanding. Dr. Freind had been committed to the 

 Tower, in consequence of his warm and able opposition in 

 parliament (the habeas corpus act being at that time sus- 

 pended) ; and, during several months of confinement, his 

 valuable practice fell chiefly into the hands of his rival 

 Mead. What was the conduct of this admirable man ? 

 After having employed every effort to release the prisoner, — • 

 he was at length summoned to relieve an indisposition of 

 Walpole, but refused to prescribe for the minister unless 

 Freind was set at liberty; and, having accomplished this 

 object, presented him with five thousand guineas, the fruit of 

 his attendance on the patients of the captive. No physician 

 had ever obtained so brilliant a recompense of his labours; — • 

 he generally received between five and six thousand pounds 

 per annum — a sum which must be at least quadrupled in 

 order to approach the present value of money. But his 

 reputation, both domestic and foreign, exceeded his revenue: 

 Blumenhach — no vulgar judge — thus designates him, thirty 

 years after his death : — '* Inter Anglos hujus periodi maxime 

 praefulgit, vir undique doctissimus, et qui innumeris modis 

 de augmento scientiarum meruit." Such opportunities as 

 he enjoyed will probably never again occur to an individual, 

 because the domains of medicine are more numerously, more 

 ably, more equally cultivated than in his time; — but we may 

 all aspire to imitate, in various shades of capacity, his gene- 

 rous patronage of obscure merit, his disregard of selfish 

 accumulation, his frank commerce with his scientific brethren, 

 his kindness to the humble client, and his dignified deport- 

 ment towards the titled one. 



We have taken pains, in some instances, to verify the 

 authenticity of anecdotes and facts recorded by our bio- 

 grapher, and have uniformly found reason to commend his 

 fidelity. As a specimen we may mention that, in the account 

 of the interview at the Tower (p. 75), the remark with 

 which Freind receives Mead, is an exact translation of the 

 postscript of the Letter which he addressed to him during 

 his detention: — *< Ego scribo hoc, cum permissione atque 



