LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 113 



all sure, on the following morning, I took an aperient of twenty grains 

 of jalap, mixed with ten grains of calomel ; and this rectified most 

 satisfactorily all that had been thrown into confusion, caused by. the 

 unfortunate midnight dip already portrayed. 



" Before I close these memoranda, I have to describe another 

 mishap of a very dark complexion. Let me crave the reader's leave 

 to pen down a few remarks on bone- setting, practised by men called 

 bone-setters, who, on account of the extraordinary advance in the 

 art of surgery, are not now, I fear, held in sufficient estimation 

 amongst the higher orders of society. Every country in Europe, so 

 far as I know to the contrary, has its bone-setter, independent of the 

 surgeon. In ' Johnson's Dictionary,' under the article ' Bone-setting,' 

 we read that a Sir John Denham exclaimed, ' Give me a good bone- 

 setter.' In Spain the bone-setter goes under the significant denomi- 

 nation of Algebrista. Here in England, however, the vast increase 

 of practitioners in the art of surgery, appears to have placed the old 

 original bone-setter in the shade ; and I myself, in many instances, 

 have heard this most useful member of society designated as a mere 

 quack ; but most unjustly so, because a quack is generally considered 

 as one devoid of professional education, and he is too apt to deal in 

 spurious medicines. But not so the bone-setter, whose extensive and 

 almost incessant practice makes ample amends for the loss of any- 

 thing that he might have acquired, by attending a regular course of 

 lectures, or by culling the essence of abstruse and scientific publi- 

 cations. With him theory seems to be a mere trifle. Practice 

 daily and assiduous practice is what renders him so successful in 

 the most complicated cases. By the way in which you put your 

 foot to the ground, by the manner in which you handle an object, 

 the bone-setter, through the mere faculty of his sight, oftentimes 

 without even touching the injured part, will tell you where the 

 ailment lies. Those only who have personally experienced the 

 skill of the bone-setter, can form a true estimation of his merit in 

 managing fractures and in reducing dislocations. Further than 

 this, his services in the healing and restorative art would never be 

 looked for. This last is entirely the province of Galen and his 

 numerous family of practitioners. Wherefore, at the time that I un- 

 equivocally avow to have the uttermost respect for the noble art of 



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