| | 1 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Lionel Lincoln, or, The Leaguer of Boston  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | Although the battle of Bunker-hill was fought
while the grass yet lay on the meadows, the heats
of summer had been followed by the nipping frosts
of November; the leaf had fallen in its hour, and
the tempests and biting colds of February had
succeeded, before Major Lincoln left that couch
where he had been laid, when carried, in total
helplessness, from the fatal heights of the
peninsula. Throughout the whole of that long
period, the hidden bullet had defied the utmost
skill of the British surgeons; nor could all their
science and experience embolden them to risk
cutting certain arteries and tendons in the body
of the heir of Lincoln, which were thought
to obstruct the passage to that obstinate lead,
which, all agreed, alone impeded the recovery of
the unfortunate sufferer. This indecision was
one of the penalties that poor Lionel paid for
his greatness; for had it been Meriton who lingered,
instead of his master, it is quite probable
the case would have been determined at a
much earlier hour. At length a young and enterprising
leech, with the world before him, arrived
from Europe, who, possessing greater skill or more
effrontery (the effects are sometimes the same) than
his fellows, did not hesitate to decide at once on
the expediency of an operation. The medical staff
of the army sneered at this bold innovator, and
at first were content with such silent testimonials
of their contempt. But when the friends of the
patient, listening, as usual, to the whisperings of
hope, consented that the confident man of probes
should use his instruments, the voices of his contemporaries
became not only loud, but clamorous.
There was a day or two when even the watch-worn
and jaded subalterns of the army forgot
the dangers and hardships of the siege, to attend
with demure and instructed countenances to the
unintelligible jargon of the “Medici” of their
camp; and men grew pale, as they listened, who
had never been known to exhibit any symptoms
of the disgraceful passion before their more
acknowledged enemies. But when it became
known that the ball was safely extracted, and
the patient was pronounced convalescent, a calm
succeeded that was much more portentous to the
human race than the preceding tempest; and in
a short time the daring practitioner was universally
acknowledged to be the founder of a new
theory. The degrees of M. D. were showered
upon his honoured head from half the learned
bodies in Christendom, while many of his enthusiastic
admirers and imitators became justly entitled
to the use of the same magical symbols, as annexments
to their patrony micks, with the addition
of the first letter in the alphabet. The ancient
reasoning was altered to suit the modern facts, and
before the war was ended, some thousands of the
servants of the crown, and not a few of the patriotic
colonists, were thought to have died, scientifically,
under the favour of this important discovery. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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