Antiquaries And
Philosophers Went To Moralise On The Spectacle In The Spirit In
Which Freeman Went To Andorra, Byron To The Site Of Troy, Or De
Tocqueville To America.
It was there that the great economist met
Horne Tooke.
Smollett's more practical and immediate object in making this
pilgrimage was to interview the great lung specialist, known
locally to his admiring compatriots as the Boerhaave of
Montpellier, Dr. Fizes. The medical school of Montpellier was
much in evidence during the third quarter of the eighteenth
century, and for the history of its various branches there are
extant numerous Memoires pour Servir, by Prunelle, Astruc, and
others. Smollett was only just in time to consult the reigning
oracle, for the "illustrious" Dr. Fizes died in the following
year. He gives us a very unfavourable picture of this "great
lanthorn of medicine," who, notwithstanding his prodigious age,
his stoop, and his wealth, could still scramble up two pairs for
a fee of six livres. More than is the case with most medical
patients, however, should we suspect Smollett of being unduly
captious. The point as to how far his sketch of the French doctor
and his diagnosis was a true one, and how far a mere caricature,
due to ill health and prejudice, has always piqued my curiosity.
But how to resolve a question involving so many problems not of
ordinary therapeutic but of historical medicine! In this
difficulty I bethought me most fortunately of consulting an
authority probably without a rival in this special branch of
medical history, Dr. Norman Moore, who with his accustomed
generosity has given me the following most instructive diagnosis
of the whole situation.
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