Volume 1

Biographic clinics / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1903-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Biographic clinics / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    66/234 page 60
    advice he gave it up, but “ found I might as well have poured my sorrows into the long hairy ear of the first jackass I came upon as of this select medical man.”1 And he rightly continued the habit to the day of his death. One of the earliest, most continuous, and latest grievances was insomnia. “ It goes to my heart when he told me in his last letter that he could not sleep without his finger in his ear.” All oculists know that insomnia is one of the most common and persistent symptoms of eye-strain. What I have called the second critical period ended with Carlyle at about the age of 32, and the six years at Craigenputtock were the happiest he was ever to have—for after 60 there were other reasons than phys¬ ical for unhappiness. Like De Quincey (and like Dar- 1 That Carlyle’s j udgment concerning those physicians he met was not far wrong, I quote the following remarkable “clinical observations” from the British Medical Journal, November 9, 1895, page 1147. “ The late Mr. Carlyle was a patient of mine. As all the world knows he was a man of great judgment and great power of observation. With regard to himself, the only remedy I could ever get him to take was grey powder. He lived to 82 or 83. Grey powder was his favorite remedy when he had that wretched dyspepsia to which he was subject, and which was fully accounted for by the fact that he was particularly fond of very nasty gingerbread. Many times I have seen him sitting in the chimney corner smoking a clay pipe and eating this gingerbread. He overcame the difficulties incident to this habit by his grey powder, which did him much good.” (Sir R. Quain.)
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3