JOHN ABERNETHY HIS WIT AND ECCENTRICITY. 



103 



OLD AGE OF BOERHAAVE. 



The name of Boerhaave is justly 

 regarded as one of the most illus- 

 trious in the calendar of modern 

 medicine. After having vigor- 

 ously struggled with poverty in 

 his youth, his talents and his fame 

 at length created a fortune for him ; 

 and, it is said, that he left two mil- 

 lions of florins to his only son. 

 Did this wealth alter the man 1 ? 

 Let us learn from his own mouth 

 what he was in his sixty-seventh 

 year ; when, in a letter to his old 

 scholar, J. B. Bassaud, then phy- 

 sician to tho Emperor of Germany, 

 he writes thus : 



"My health is very good. I 

 sleep at my country-house. I go 

 to town every morning by five 

 o'clock ; and I occupy myself there, 

 from that time until six in the 

 evening, in relieving the sick. I 

 understand chemistry ; I amuse 

 myself in reading it; I revere, I 

 love, I adore, the only God ! When 

 I return to the country, I visit my 

 Is : I acknowledge and admire 

 tho presents with which the liber- 

 ality of my friend Bassaud has en- 

 riched me. My garden seems to 

 be proud of the variety and strength 

 of its trees. I pass my life in con- 

 templating my plants ; I grow old 

 in the desire of possessing new ones. 

 Amiable and sweet folly! Thus 

 riches only serve to irritate the 

 thirst of possession, and the miser 

 is miserable from the liberality of 

 his benefactor. Forgive the mad- 

 ness of an old friend, who wishes 

 to plant trees, the beauty and shade 

 of which will be destined to give 

 delight only to hi;-; nephew*. It is 

 thuo that my -', without 



any other chagrin than my distance 

 IV.iiii you,and happy in every thing 



What an amiable picture does 

 this present of that great and good 

 man ! What activity, and what 

 zeal for the relief of sulTering hu- 



manity ! The original letter is 

 written in Latin, and it has been 

 found difficult to catch the spirit of 

 the original. 



ANCIENT STATE OF SURGERY IN 

 SCOTLAND. 



When the surgeons of Edinburgh 

 were, in 1505, incorporated, under 

 the denominations of surgeons and 

 barbers, it was required of them to 

 be able to read and write ! " to 

 know anatomie, nature, and com- 

 plexion of everie member of huma- 

 nis bodie, and lykwayes to know all 

 vaynes of the samyu, that he may 

 make flewbothemie in dew time ;" 

 together with a perfect knowledge 

 of shaving beards. These were all 

 the qualifications that seemed ne- 

 cessary to the art of surgery, at the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century. 

 The practice of physic was, if pos- 

 sible, in a still more deplorable 

 state. (Campbell's Journey from 

 Edinburgh to the Highlands.) 



ZIMMERMAN. 



This eminent physician went 

 from Hanover to attend Frederick 

 the Great in his last illness. One 

 day the king said to him, "You 

 have, I presume, sir, helped many 

 a man into another world T This 

 was rather a bitter pill for the 

 doctor; but the dose he gave the 

 king in return, was a judicious 

 mixture of truth and flattery : 

 " Not so many as your majesty, nor 

 with so much honour to myself." 



JOHN ABERNETHY HIS WIT AND 

 ECCENTRICITY. 



A lady consulted him on a nerv- 

 ous disorder, and gave him a long, 

 frivolous, and fantastic detail of her 

 symptoms. He referred her, as was 

 his wont, to his " book," but she 

 persisted in endeavouring to extract 

 further information from h im . " May 

 I eat oysters, Doctor? may I take 

 Kipper?" "I'll tell you what, Ma- 

 ," replied Mr. Abernethy im- 



