History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

i9o GALABANK'S WRITINGS
barley water, and other fluids, and refused to bleed, or to prescribe debilitating
remedies. His book was to advocate this novel practice. 1
The fine weather enjoyed in 1753 seemed to restore the district to health,
but the wet summer of 1755, followed by a mild, wet winter, ushered in another
outbreak of fever with increased severity. Early in November the great
earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins occurred. Johnstone says it shook
the whole eastern limit of the Atlantic Ocean, and was felt from Africa to
the remote coasts of Europe. " Precisely at the time which corresponded
with the general commotion, in a profound calm, the waters of Severn and
some fishponds in our neighbourhood were tossed and agitated in a manner
which astonished the spectators." In another book, on the second outbreak of
fever, he refers to the illness of Queen Anne's son, the Duke of Gloucester,
whose death caused as much dismay in the three kingdoms as that of the
Princess Charlotte in 1818. He imagined from the rapidity with which it
ran its course that it was the same, so fatal to the children in Kidderminster in
1750. Dr Ratcliffe was called to see the Duke the day before he died, and
predicted that he could not live through the next day. He said the two
attending physicians deserved to be whipped for their treatment of the Royal
invalid. It would have been interesting, adds Johnstone, if this celebrated
physician had told us the course he himself would have pursued if summoned
earlier.
Johnstone's books excited more interest in London than in the country,
but they were severely criticised in spite of his success. They made a favourable
impression on Lord Lyttleton, who had rather ignored him since his imprudent
marriage. He invited him to stay at Hagley to meet a select party of some of
the leading men of the day as well as Mrs Montagu, with whom he and his
children became very intimate later on.
A young physician who refuted the traditions of Boerhave, in which he
had been educated, and of his followers, Munro and Cullen, and thought his own
observations the best guide was certain to be opposed, and Dr Cameron and Dr
Wall, of Worcester, old-fashioned practitioners, were great rivals. Cameron
and MacKenzie, both Scots, were the earliest physicians to the Worcester
Infirmary when it was opened in 1745. Cameron's father was an "outed"
Episcopalian in Edinburgh. John Warner, Bishop of Rochester, a theologian
and antiquarian, founded four scholarships in 1666 at Baliol College for
Scotsmen, but provided that when the scholars had taken their degree " they
should return to Scotland in Holy Orders, that there may never be wanting
men to support the ecclesiastical establishment of England in the North."
When William III. abolished Episcopacy the trustees allowed the youths
to choose their own professions, and Cameron was the first to profit by it.
He partially adopted Johnstone's views, and is described by Johnstone as
being sometimes right, often wrong, and always positive. Dr Wall was a
local man, combining medicine with art, and is generally mentioned with
1 It is needless to say this is according to modern lights, but Johnstone advocated
it sixty years before it was generally adopted in this country, and still later on the Continent.