The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
History
The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
Literature and medicine; Physicians; Physicians in literature
The first appearance of two specimens of this variety of the immature
medico in the humorous pages of the "Pickwick Papers" is described as
follows in the low cockney vernacular of Sam Weller. "One on 'em," he
tells Mr. Pickwick, "has got his legs on the table, and is a-drinkin'
brandy neat, vile the tother one--him in the barnacles--has got a barrel
of oysters atween his knees, vich he's a-openin' like steam, and as fast
as he eats 'em he takes a aim with the shells at young Dropsy, who's
a-sittin' down fast asleep in the chimbley corner." The latter gentleman
is Mr. Benjamin Allen, who is described by the novelist as "a coarse,
stout, thick-set young man, with black hair cut rather short, and a white
face cut rather long. He was embellished with spectacles, and wore a white
neckerchief. Below his single-breasted black surtout, which was buttoned
up to his chin, appeared the usual number of pepper-and-salt coloured
legs, terminating in a pair of imperfectly polished boots. Although his
coat was short in the sleeves, it disclosed no vestige of a linen
wristband, and although there was quite enough of his face to admit of the
encroachment of a shirt-collar, it was not graced by the smallest approach
to that appendage. He presented altogether rather a mildewy appearance,
and emitted a fragrant odour of full-flavoured Cubas."
This gentleman's companion is Mr. Bob Sawyer, "who was habited in a coarse
blue coat which, without being either a great-coat or a surtout, partook
of the nature and qualities of both," and "had about him that sort of
slovenly smartness and swaggering gait which is peculiar to young
gentlemen who smoke in the streets by day, shout and scream in the same by
night, call waiters by their Christian names, and do various other acts
and deeds of an equally facetious description. He wore a pair of plaid
trousers and a large rough double-breasted waistcoat: out of doors he
carried a thick stick with a big top. He eschewed gloves, and looked, upon
the whole, something like a dissipated Robinson Crusoe." The conversation
of these budding surgeons is perfectly in harmony with their outward
aspect. Their discourse, when it assumes a serious character, is of the
"cases" at the hospital and the "subjects" at the time being on the
dissecting tables of the anatomical lecture-rooms. When relieved from
attendance at the hospitals, they lounge at tavern bars, and flirt with
barmaids and waitresses, to whom their attentions are not unfrequently of
an objectionable character, and less agreeable than they imagine them to
be.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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