THE PHYSICIAN’S GOLD-HEADED CANE.—Much might be written about the gold-headed cane of the physician. Although it has had its day, it was long considered an important part of a medical outfit. Jeaffreson ventures to affirm that formerly “no doctor would have presumed to pay a professional visit, or even to be seen in public, without this mystic wand.”[520] What was its history? Did it come down to our time as a representative of the one placed in the hand of the god of medicine by the artists? Jeaffreson expresses the opinion that it is “a relic of the conjuring paraphernalia with which the healer in ignorant and superstitious times always worked upon the imagination of the credulous,” and that “it descended to him from Hermes and Mercurius.” “It was a relic,” he adds, “of old jugglery, and of yet older religion.”[521] As the reader is aware, these statements are open to criticism. But, whatever its origin may have been, it was almost universally used by physicians until recently. The physician’s cane was generally smooth, of moderate weight, and with a gold head in the form of a knob. A gold head! What was the meaning of that? Was it used because of the bearer’s reputed love of the precious metal? Chaucer says, and with charming casuistry, in the famous description of his doctor:— “For gould in physike is a cordial; Therefore, he lovede gould in special.”[522] It may, then, have been its medicinal virtues, virtues still occasionally lauded by therapeutic prospectors, which suggested the use of it in the cane. But, after all, the desire to make a good appearance may have been the reason for its use. The head of the cane was not always solid; on the contrary, it was often, like many a one’s, doubtless, who carried it, hollow. In the cavity, it was customary to keep something medicinal, such as ammonia. About this there was much mystery in the minds of the populace. Jeaffreson, who may very properly be regarded as of this class, says that the doctor “always held it to his nose, when he approached a sick person, so that its fumes might protect him from the noxious exhalations of his patient.”[523] Something of the kind is still supposed by many to be done. The idea was entertained by more than a few, that within the head of the cane existed, in some cases at least, a familiar spirit which gave the owner extraordinary power. Paracelsus was reputed to have within the pummel of his long sword, which he used instead of a cane, a genius, in the form of a bird, which enabled him to perform wonders. Butler speaks of it thus:— “Bombastus kept a devil’s bird, Shut up in the pummel of his sword, That taught him all the cunning pranks Of past and future mountebanks.”[524] Alchemists said that it was the philosopher’s stone, but it has been with better reason conjectured[525] that it was laudanum,—an agent which the bold, talented quack was in the habit of using much with striking results.