20 OUTLINE OF FOTHERGILL'S LIFE CHAP. 



members of the highest families. Fothergill made a 

 careful study of the disease and was very successful in its 

 treatment. He found the usual methods of bleeding and 

 purging to be generally harmful, and he laid down instead 

 of these a cordial and supporting regimen with especial 

 use of cinchona bark. He published in 1748 " An Account 

 of the Sore-throat attended with Ulcers." The book was 

 much read and many editions were called for. He stepped 

 at once into fame and increased practice. His skill had 

 become known and valued, he had many consultations in 

 the country around London, and his advice was sought 

 in writing by practitioners in more distant parts, in the 

 British colonies, and other countries. 



Thus was Fothergill at thirty-six years of age estab- 

 lished in one of the largest physician's practices in the 

 capital. More than thirty years found him still " labour- 

 ing at the oar." Few men ever lived a busier life. Sixteen 

 or seventeen hours of toil were no uncommon event. 

 " I have not slept these twenty hours," he writes to Dr. 

 Falconer, " and have been in action most of the time." 

 Again, in 1768 : " I have not had a moment's respite from 

 intense thought the whole day, but while I get a little 

 abstracted in passing through a crowd from place to 

 place." His sister writes of " the perpetual clamour of 

 people wanting him," and that he was " every night 

 exhausted to the last grain of ability of body and mind." 

 Yet " he seems calm," she says, " and not discontent in 

 the busy scene," though it is " much like the continual 

 hurry of a whirlwind." 



An attempt will be made on a later page to state the 

 causes of Fothergill's extraordinary success as a physician. 

 It will be sufficient here to allude to his thorough medical 

 training, his reliance on observation rather than on 

 tradition, and to his emphasis upon diet as a means of 

 cure. His quickness of thought, methodical habits, and 

 constant kindness had also much influence. Fothergill's 

 income was now large ; it has, however, probably been 

 exaggerated, and did not really exceed 5000, except in 

 some special years when influenza was prevalent. His 



