Sir Walter Scott Has So Well Described A Country Surgeon's Miseries, That
We Shall Quote The Passage, More Especially As It Bears Particular
Reference To Park:
- "Like the ghostly lover of Leonora, he mounts at
midnight, and traverses in darkness paths which, to those less
Accustomed
to them, seem formidable in daylight, through straits where the slightest
aberration would plunge him into a morass, or throw him over a precipice,
on to cabins which his horse might ride over without knowing they lay in
his way, unless he happened to fall through the roofs. When he arrives at
such a stately termination of his journey, where his services are
required, either to bring a wretch into the world, or prevent one from
leaving it, the scene of misery is often such, that, far from touching
the hard saved shillings which are gratefully offered to him, he bestows
his medicines as well as his attendance - for charity. I have heard the
celebrated traveller Mungo Park, who had experienced both courses of
life, rather give the preference to travelling as a discoverer in Africa,
than to wandering, by night and day, the wilds of his native land in the
capacity of a country medical practitioner. He mentioned having once upon
a time rode forty miles, sat up all night, and successfully assisted a
woman under influence of the primitive curse, for which his sole
remuneration was a roasted potato and a draught of butter milk. But his
was not the heart which grudged the labour that relieved human misery.
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