xxvi THE LIFE OF HARVEY. 



to Charles, and in the latter we find his absence, " by reason 

 of his attendance on the king's majesty/' from St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital complained of by the surgeons of that insti- 

 tution, and Dr. Andrews appointed by the governors as his 

 substitute, but " without prejudice to him in his yearly fee or 

 in any other respect." 1 Such considerate treatment satisfies 

 us of the esteem in which Harvey was held. 



In the early part of 1633 Charles determined to visit his 

 ancient kingdom of Scotland, for the ostensible purpose of 

 being crowned King of Scots. Upon this occasion Harvey 

 accompanied him, as matter of course, we may presume. 

 But the absence of the court from London was not of long 

 duration ; and in the early autumn of the same year we are 

 pleased to find Harvey again at his post in St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital, engaged in his own province and propounding divers 

 rules and regulations for the better government of the house 

 and its officers, 2 which of themselves give us an excellent insight 

 into the state of the hospital, as well as of the relative posi- 

 tions of the several departments of the healing art two centu- 

 ries ago. The doctor's treatment of the poor chirurgeons in 

 these rules is sufficiently despotic it must be admitted; but 

 ' the chirurgeons in their acquiescence showed that they merited 

 no better handling. The only point on which they proved 

 restive, indeed, was the revealment of their SECRETS to the 

 physician ; a great outrage in days when every man had his 

 secrets, and felt fully justified in keeping them to himself. 

 But surgery in the year 1633 had not shown any good title 

 to an independent existence. The surgeon of those days was 



1 Vide Records of Harvey from the Journals of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, pub. 

 by James Paget, 8vo, London, 1846. Harvey, on his appointment to attend the 

 Duke of Lennox, applied to have Dr. Smith chosen his substitute ; but the governors 

 proved recusant : " It was thought fit that they should have further knowledge and 

 satisfaction of the sufficiency of the said Mr. Smith;" and they very shortly after- 

 wards gave Dr. Andrews, first, the reversion of Harvey's office, and by and by they 

 formally appointed him Harvey's deputy or substitute. 



a Vide Mr. Paget's publication already quoted, p. 13. 



