Aprit 1907,] PATRICK BLAIR, SURGEON APOTHECARY. 269 
from which I quote there is a good deal of sensible and clear 
writing apart from the “case” given. 
‘There was a Man so raving Mad, that he was bound in 
Fetters; having first tried all Evacuations usual in such Cases, 
together with Opiates in great Quantity, but to no purpose, I at 
length plung’d him ex improviso into a great Vessel of Cold 
Water, and at the same time throwing with great Violence Ten 
or Twelve Pails full of Cold Water on his Head; but that not 
succeeding, the next Day, having the Conveniency of a Fall of 
Water about half a Mile off, I caus’d him to be placed in a Cart, 
and strip’d from his Cloathes; and, being blindfolded, that the 
Surprize might be the greater, there was let fall on a sudden a 
greit Fall or Rush of Water, about 20 Foot high,' under which 
he was continued so long as his Strength would well permit: 
This succeeded so well, that after his return home he fell into a 
deep Sleep for the Space of 29 Hours, and awaken’d in as quiet and 
serene a State of Mind as ever, and so continues to this Day, it being 
now about 12 Months Since.” Later on in the paper, the Doctor 
rather naively admits that “in some hypochondriac and paralytic 
Cases, I have not found it—the bathing—succeed so well.”— 
Letter I., Misc. Obs. 
When Dr. Blair visited London again, he went under 
very different conditions, and his next meeting with his 
friends Sloane and Petiver was within the walls of 
Newgate Prison. My friend Professor Balfour wrote 
once of that “arch-Jacobite Blair,”? but I do not think 
there is quite suttcient justification for this expression. 
Undoubtedly Blair was familiar with many who were 
strongly attached to the Stuart cause. His friends and 
correspondents included Dr. Arthur, who, in 1715, was mixed 
up in the attempt to capture Edinburgh Castle for the 
Jacobite cause. Dr. Archibald Pitcairne was known to 
him, and they had consultations together over some special 
patients. His friend Lord Colville (of Ochiltree), to whom 
he refers as drawing his attention to certain plants,—“a 
learned and curious nobleman, skilled in music, and well 
versed in botany and other parts of the natural history,’— 
was one of the steady opponents of the Union of 1707 in the 
Scots Parliament, and, according to Defoe’s History, his name 
was invariably among the “ Noes.” Dr. Blair was sufficiently 
1 | am inclined to think this must have been the Dens’ Burn, now 
enclosed in the extensive works of Messrs. Baxter Bros., Ltd. 
2 “Scottish Notes and Queries,” November 1904, p. 77. 
TRANS, BOT. SOC, EDIN, VOL, XXIII. 19 
