"Mons. F - Observe, 'On No Dit Point S'il Y A Des Exacerbations
Dans Cette Fievre Ou Non.' Qu'il.
Regarde la lettre B, il verra,
Vespere febris exacerbatur.
Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma
per noctem grassantur.'
"Mons. F - remarque, 'On ne dit point si le malade a appetit ou
non, s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un mot on n'entre
dans aucun detail sur ces objets.' Mais on voit toutes ces
circonstances detaillees dans la memoire a lettre A, 'Irritatio
membranae trachaealis tussim, initio aridam, siliquosam, deinde
vero excreationem copiosam excitat. Sputum albumini ovi
simillimum. Appetitus raro deest. Digestio segnior sed secura.'
"Mons. F - observe encore, 'qu'on ne dit pas un mot sur la toux
dans la relation.' Mais j'ai dit encore a No. 3 de memoire,
'rediit febris hectica; rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et
dolore lateris lancinante.'
"Au reste, je ne puis pas me persuader qu'il y ait des tubercules
au poumon, parce que j'ai ne jamais crache de pus, ni autre chose
que de la pituite qui a beaucoup de ressemblance au blanc des
oeufs. Sputum albumini ovi simillimum. Il me paroit done que ma
maladie doit son origine a la suspension de l'exercice du corps,
au grand attachement d'esprit, et a une vie sedentaire qui a
relache le sisteme fibreux; et qu'a present on pent l'appeller
tubes pituitaria, non tubes purulenta. J'espere que Mons. Faura
la bonte de faire revision du memoire, et de m'en dire encore son
sentiment."
Considering the nature of the case, you see I could not treat him
more civilly. I desired the servant to ask when he should return
for an answer, and whether he expected another fee. He desired
him to come next morning, and, as the fellow assured me, gave him
to understand, that whatever monsieur might solicit, should be for
his (the servant's) advantage. In all probability he did not
expect another gratification, to which, indeed, he had no title.
Mons. F - was undoubtedly much mortified to find himself detected
in such flagrant instances of unjustifiable negligence, arid like
all other persons in the same ungracious dilemma, instead of
justifying himself by reason or argument, had recourse to
recrimination. In the paper which he sent me next day, he
insisted in general that he had carefully perused the case (which
you will perceive was a self-evident untruth); he said the theory
it contained was idle; that he was sure it could not be written
by a physician; that, with respect to the disorder, he was still
of the same opinion; and adhered to his former prescription; but
if I had any doubts I might come to his house, and he would
resolve them.
I wrapt up twelve livres in the following note, and sent it to
his house.
"C'est ne pas sans raison que monsieur F - jouit d'une si grande
reputation. Je n'ai plus de doutes, graces a Dieu et a monsieur
F - e. " "It is not without reason that monsieur Fizes enjoys such
a large share of reputation. I have no doubts remaining; thank
Heaven and monsieur Fizes."
To this I received for answer. "Monsieur n'a plus de doutes: j'en
suis charme. Receu douze livres. F - , &c." "Sir, you have no
doubts remaining; I am very glad of it. Received twelve livres.
Fizes, &c."
Instead of keeping his promise to the valet, he put the money in
his pocket; and the fellow returned in a rage, exclaiming that he
was un gros cheval de carosse, a great coach-horse.
I shall make no other comment upon the medicines, and the regimen
which this great Doctor prescribed; but that he certainly mistook
the case: that upon the supposition I actually laboured under a
purulent discharge from the lungs, his remedies savour strongly
of the old woman; and that there is a total blank with respect to
the article of exercise, which you know is so essential in all
pulmonary disorders. But after having perused my remarks upon his
first prescription, he could not possibly suppose that I had
tubercules, and was spitting up pus; therefore his persisting in
recommending the same medicines he had prescribed on that
supposition, was a flagrant absurdity. - If, for example, there
was no vomica in the lungs; and the business was to attenuate the
lymph, what could be more preposterous than to advise the chalk
of Briancon, coral, antihecticum poterii, and the balm of Canada?
As for the turtle-soupe, it is a good restorative and balsamic;
but, I apprehend, will tend to thicken rather than attenuate the
phlegm. He mentions not a syllable of the air, though it is
universally allowed, that the climate of Montpellier is
pernicious to ulcerated lungs; and here I cannot help recounting
a small adventure which our doctor had with a son of Mr. O - d,
merchant in the city of London. I had it from Mrs. St - e who was
on the spot. The young gentleman, being consumptive, consulted
Mr. F - , who continued visiting and prescribing for him a whole
month. At length, perceiving that he grew daily worse, "Doctor
(said he) I take your prescriptions punctually; but, instead of
being the better for them, I have now not an hour's remission
from the fever in the four-and-twenty. - I cannot conceive the
meaning of it." F - , who perceived he had not long to live, told
him the reason was very plain: the air of Montpellier was too
sharp for his lungs, which required a softer climate. "Then
you're a sordid villain (cried the young man) for allowing me to
stay here till my constitution is irretrievable." He set out
immediately for Tholouse, and in a few weeks died in the
neighbourhood of that city.
I observe that the physicians in this country pay no regard to
the state of the solids in chronical disorders, that exercise and
the cold bath are never prescribed, that they seem to think the
scurvy is entirely an English disease; and that, in all
appearance, they often confound the symptoms of it, with those of
the venereal distemper.
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