University of Virginia Library

The college of physicians is erected in Warwick Lane.

Cedunt Arma Togæ, is a well known expression. In the universities the doctors of physick are invested with a Scarlet Gown; and it may be a question with some perhaps, whether that or the Scarlet Coat has been productive of most destruction among mankind.

On St. Luke's day there is a Latin speech pronounced by a Fellow in the college of physicians, called (from Doctor Harvey, the original institutor of this ceremony) Oratio Harveiana.

The medical gentry, however they may recommend abstinence to others, are many of them no enemies to the bottle, if taken in Moderation, as they term it. A certain witty physician was advising a friend of his, who had been used to be too free with his bottle, to take a chearful Pint with his meals, and no more: “but, says he, the “whole secret consists in knowing how much your Pint should hold. I myself take “my Pint constantly after dinner and supper; but mine is a Scots Pint,”—that is, two quarts.

A. B. Artium Baccalaureus, batchelor of arts, A. M. Artium Magister, master of arts, M. B. Medicinæ Baccalaureus, batchelor of physick, M. D. Medicinæ Doctor, doctor of physick.

Garth.

In the fourth book of Homer's Iliad is a list of the forces employed against Troy.

Newgate Market is contiguous to Warwick Lane. The Butchers are therefore called (in V. 50.) neighb'ring butchers.

In the Ode on St. Cæcilia's Day, adapted to the ancient British musick, is the following AIR.

Richard Rock, a very noted practitioner. We have not been able to learn the import of those two significant letters M. L. which constantly accompany his name. Flugger. Dr. Flugger, no less noted, but not of so long standing.

Drury Lane, of antient renown. Covent Garden is emphatically stiled The Garden, as the principal singers in the Opera are called The Guarducci, The Lovatini &c.

Doctor Mead, in his essay on poison says, “I had once in my possession, given me by an ingenious chemist, a clear liquor, which though ponderous, was so volatile, that it would all fly away in the open air, without being heated, and so corrosive, that a glass stopple of the bottle, which contained it, was in a short time so eroded, that it could never be taken out. The fume of it was so thin, that if a candle was set at some distance from the bottle, upon a table, the heat would direct its course that way; so that it might be poisonous to any one that sat near to the light, and to no body else. I know (adds the doctor) the composition of this stygian spirit; but it is better, that the world should not be instructed in such arts of death.”

For the same reason the author, as a lover of his king and country, and consequently a friend to Population, chuses not to print the word S--- at full length.

Pope's Homer.

In justice to the honest landlord that keeps the house, and the worthy alderman that serves it, we think ourselves obliged to acquaint all true lovers of Entire Butt, that they will be sure to meet with an excellent tankard of it at the Three Jolly Butchers, the corner of Warwick-Court.

The author ingenuously acknowledges, that some of the best lines (if any may be called so) in his poem, are owing to the inspiration of this excellent liquor.

Vulgarly called, Smoaking Room.

We cannot but take notice here of an infamous addition to those admirable lines in favour of this noble exotic plant; to wit,

An enemy to Tobacconists has reversed the sentiment, by saying,

Hamlet.

“When the crowd of superannuated patriots had, by their advice and exhortations to the soldiers, done all that was in their power towards the defence of the capital, [Rome] they returned to their houses, there to wait, with steady resolution, the coming of the enemy, and death. Such of them, as had triumphed for victories, or had been Curule magistrates, that they might die with the greater dignity, adorned themselves with the insignia of those honours which they had acquired by their virtue Cloathed in their triumphal robes, or in those of their magistracies, they repaired to the Forum, and seating themselves there, in their Curule chairs, maintained the same respectable air of greatness, as when in the fullness of their former power.

“As the Gauls had met with little resistance from the Romans in the field, and were not put to the trouble of an assault to take the city, they entered it (at the gate Collina) without any thing, in their appearance, of hostile anger, that raging flame kindled by opposition, difficulty and danger. Moving on, they beheld, with amazement, the streets unpeopled as a desert; and when they came to the Forum, and cast their eyes all around, they could observe no shew of war but in the Citadel alone. What chiefly drew and fixed their Attention, was the company of venerable Victims, who had devoted themselves to Death. Their Magnificent Purple Robes, their long White Beards, their Air of Greatness, their Silence, Stillness, and Serenity, all these astonished the Gauls, held them at an awful distance, and inspired them with the same Respect which they would have had for so many Gods. It chanced, however, that one of the soldiers (who was, probably, less apt to be religiously affected than his comrades) took the freedom gently to put his hand towards the beard of Manlius Papirius, as if he meant to stroke it; a familiarity which so offended the Magestic Figure, that, with a smart blow of his Ivory Truncheon, he broke the fellow's head. There needed no more to put an end to all reverence for such a cholerick deity. The Gauls instantly killed Papirius; and, as if he had given the signal for a general massacre, all the rest were now slain, sitting, like him, in state, in their Curule Chairs.”

Let the Reader figure to himself the DOCTORS,—their Magnificent Full-trim'd Black,—their long White Perukes,—their Air of Greatness,—their Silence, Stillness, and Serenity,—their Gold-headed Canes, (no less respectable than the Ivory Truncheon)—their sitting in State, in their Elbow Chairs;—Let the Reader, I say, figure to himself these Magestick Figures, and we are confident, he must be struck with awe and admiration.

The sound is here designedly made to ecchoe to the sense. So Virgil,

Many instances may be brought, not only from the Greek and Latin poets, of a similar attention, but also from our own. Let one suffice.—

Shakespeare, in his King Lear, has the following line,

the Precipitation of which Tate has chosen to stop (in his alteration of this play) by substituting

O what a tumbling down is here!