106 DR. LETTSOM 



CHAP. 



world was not yet ready. Critics indeed and malign 

 opponents were not wanting. An entertaining article 

 on " Dr. Wriggle, or the Art of Rising in Physic " came 

 out in 1782, in which his weaker traits, of course grossly 

 exaggerated, were played upon by a jealous fellow- 

 physician. 1 It was true that he liked to be in the public 

 eye, and to see his portrait and memoir in a magazine ; 

 but his love for the role of a philosopher and philan- 

 thropist was based on real kindness of heart ; voice, pen 

 and purse were equally at the service of all good works. 



It was a day of the formation of societies and institu- 

 tions for all manner of useful purposes ; a large number 

 of these sprang up in London from the year 1780 onwards. 

 There were societies for the Suppression of Vice, for the 

 Publication of Select Religious Tracts, for the Encourage- 

 ment of Good Servants, and for many other objects. 

 Some became permanent and useful institutions ; others 

 were ephemeral. Lettsom was President of some of 

 these societies, and Vice-President of others ; his part in 

 the Humane Society will be spoken of elsewhere. He 

 took also no little interest in the reform of prisons. 2 



In dealing with the poor he recommended the system 

 of relief used by the Society of Friends ; remove, he said, 

 the causes of distress : principiis obsta. His desire to 

 help the poor in London impelled him to find some means 

 whereby scrofulous children could obtain the benefits of 

 sea-bathing in a climate adapted to their cure. Associ- 

 ating with himself two other men of public spirit, J. 

 Nichols and Rev. J. Pridden, he purchased in 1793 two 

 acres of land on the cliff at Margate, and here founded 

 the General Sea-Bathing Infirmary, which was opened 

 in August 1796. The original building has since been 

 greatly added to, the number of patients accommodated 



1 The arts by which Dr. Wriggle succeeded to Dr. Worthy (Fothergill) 

 are detailed. Westminster Magazine, 1782, p. 466 ; Mem. Lettsom, i. Corresp. 



p. 21. 



* Lettsom was consulted on the disinfection of Newgate after the death 

 of Lord George Gordon from fever in that prison in 1793. He took a leading 

 part in setting up the statue of John Howard in St. Paul's Cathedral, and in 

 introducing to the public James Neild's accounts of the state of prisons from 

 1803 to 1813 (Gent. Mag. ; Mem. Lettsom, i. 109). 



