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

268 JOHN'S SECOND PAMPHLET
Sir John Wrottesley, M.P., Co. Stafford, told him of it. Simple and straightforward
himself, he had believed that the facts only required to be made known
to be accepted. He was too late in the field, and his father's reputation was too
near his heart, to argue the subject to the best advantage. He was apt to
overload his gun, and in 1805 he published a crushing reply, to which his
brother, Edward, contributed a long letter.
It is not for a moment to be supposed that Dr Smyth did not quite believe,
in 1795, when he wrote on the subject, that the acid vapour had never been used
before. He was a hard-worked man of sixty in 1802, with a numerous family
to put out into the world, and had evidently not kept himself up in current
medical literature to the same extent as his rivals. His cause was gained by
Dr Lind, of Windsor, asserting that he had never heard of this antidote till Dr
Smyth wrote in 1795, and by a quotation from a very old book to the effect
that no one had yet found any means of arresting contagion in fevers.
Sir William Pulteney and one or two other Scottish friends had been very
cool with John since Galabank was bequeathed to him over the head of his
nephew and elder brothers, and Sir William even declined further correspondence
with him, but put off this frigid attitude after a visit to Edward at
Ladywood House, where they met. John sent him his second pamphlet, which
was acknowledged.
" London, March 30, 1803.
" I received yours of the 22nd two days ago, and have read with great
satisfaction the paper you sent me on the comparative merit of your father's
discovery of the muriatic acid for destroying contagion and of nitric acid for the
same purpose. I forwarded it with your letter to Sir Joseph Banks for the
Royal Society ; and I should think that even if it should be published, as I
trust it will, by the Society, yet that it ought also to be published as a separate
treatise, not only for the honour of your father's memory, but for giving very
important information to mankind on a subject of very great importance. I
approve very much of the style and manner in which you have detailed the
particulars concerning this matter. I am, etc. William Pulteney.
"To Dr John Johnstone, Birmingham."
It was declined by Sir J. Banks on the ground of it being controversial
but shortly afterwards John was made a Fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians, and of the Royal Society. He had already received a medal from
the Royal Medical Society of London for his Essay on Mineral Poisons, pub-
lished in 1793.
Although the two brothers had differences a little later, Edward declined
to make Galabank a cause of quarrel, for he had always treated John paternally
in the assistance he had given him, but he felt it, and Henry and Lockhart
took his side. The house in Foregate Street was advertised in 1804 as "Those
Extensive premises situate in Foregate Street, Worcester, entirely freehold, and
recently occupied by Dr Johnstone, which are well calculated for a Gentleman's
habitation or any other purpose where a considerable number of rooms are