Virginians at the school of medicine in Edinburgh had organized themselves, a few years before, into a Virginia Society "for the protection of the profession against quacks and imposters who had degraded the profession by mingling with it the trade of an apothecary or surgeon!" An eloquent petition is preserved addressed "To the Honourable the Council of Virginia and House of Burgesses," entreating that "laws be passed forbidding the intrusion of pretenders into the domain of the authorized practitioner, thereby dishonouring the profession itself and destroying mankind." We can imagine the enormities committed by the quacks and imposters when we observe the methods of the legitimate practitioner. When a man or woman sickened, the doctors sped the parting guest,--taking from him his very life-blood, by cupping, leeching, bleeding, and reducing his strength by blistering and drenching. Nature was sometimes strong enough to give battle to doctor and disease, and even to win a victory over their combined forces. But in old age Nature prudently retired without a struggle. We hope much for Mary Washington from the gentle ministration of Betty Lewis and the indulgent kindness of good Dr. Charles Mortimer, also Betty Lewis's own testimony, one month before the end, of her patience and resignation. The last word from her lips reveals no earthly wish save the desire to hear from her son's "own hand that he is well." August 25, 1789, she was released from sufferings which had been borne with unfaltering faith and fortitude; and on the 27th of that month she was laid to rest in the spot she had herself chosen as her last resting-place, and over which her monument, erected by the women of America, now stands. The President did not learn of her death--in that day of post-riders--until the 1st of September. It was announced to him by his kinsman Colonel Burgess Ball. On September 13, he wrote to his sister, Mrs. Betty Lewis, as follows:-- "MY DEAR SISTER: Colonel Ball's letter gave me the first account of my Mother's death. Since that I have received Mrs. Carter's[28] letter, written at your request, and previous to both. I was prepared for the event by advices of her illness coming to your son Robert. "Awful and affecting as the death of a parent is, there is consolation in knowing that Heaven has spared ours to an age beyond which few attain, and favored her with the full enjoyment of her mental faculties and as much bodily strength as usually falls to the lot of four score. "When I was last in Fredericksburg I took a final leave of her, never expecting to see her more.... "Your affectionate brother, "GEORGE WASHINGTON." [28] Mrs. Charles Carter, his niece, Betty Lewis's daughter. Ten years later he records the death of all of his mother's children. September 22, 1799, he writes to Colonel Burgess Ball:--