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A Walking Stick
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Black And White
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An Attic Jest
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A Wonderful Cure
Jests Home
DOCTOR HILL, a notorious wit, physician, and man of letters, having
quarrelled with the members of the Royal Society, who had refused to
admit him as an associate, resolved to avenge himself. At the time that
Bishop Berkeley had issued his work on the marvellous virtues of
tar-water, Hill addressed to their secretary a letter purporting to be
from a country-surgeon, and reciting the particulars of a cure which he
had effected. A sailor, he wrote, broke his leg, and applied to me
for help. I bound together the broken portions, and washed them with
the celebrated tar-water. Almost immediately the sailor felt the
beneficial effects of this remedy, and it was not long before his leg
was completely healed! The letter was read, and discussed at the
meetings of the Royal Society, and caused considerable difference of
opinion. Papers were written for and against the tar-water and the
restored leg, when a second letter arrived from the (pretended) country
practitioner:--In my last I omitted to mention that the broken limb of
the sailor was a wooden leg!
Next: An Accommodating Physician
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