Ixviii 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



him that I was an English gentleman, travelling in 

 quest of natural history, he remarked that he had 

 been mistaken in his surmise, for that he had taken 

 me for a damned Yankee. 



In the autumn of 1814, as I was shooting with 

 my excellent brother-in-law, Mr. Carr, I had a proof 

 that, although a man may escape with impunity in 

 distant regions, he may stumble on misfortune at 

 home, when he least expects it. My gun went 

 off accidentally. I had just rammed the paper 

 down upon the powder, when the ramrod, which 

 was armed with brass at both ends, passed quite 

 through my fore finger, betwixt the knuckle and 

 the first joint, without breaking the bone ; the 

 paper and ignited powder following through the 

 hole, and rendering its appearance as black as 

 soot. I repaired to a tenant's house and poured 

 warm water plentifully through the wound, until 

 I had washed away the marks of the gunpowder ; 

 then collecting the ruptured tendons, which were 

 hanging down, I replaced them carefully, and bound 

 up the wound, not forgetting to give to the finger 

 its original shape as nearly as possible. After this, 

 I opened a vein with the other hand, and took away 

 to the extent of two and twenty ounces of blood. 

 Whilst I am on phlebotomy, I may remark, that I 

 consider inflammation to be the root and origin of 

 almost all diseases. To subdue this at its earliest 

 stage has been my constant care. Since my four 

 and twentieth year, I have been blooded above one 

 hundred and ten times, in eighty of which I have 

 performed the operation on myself with my own 



