Note 20 — Chapter XXI

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1843 observes:—"In England, after Sir Astley, whose superiority of mind or dexterity of hand stood uncontested, another practitioner in that category of the Faculty of which it has been said, 'Periculis nostris, et experimenta per mortes agunt medici,' the once famous St John Long was, I believe, the most largely requited. I had some previous knowledge of him, and in 1830 he showed me his pass-book with his bankers, Sir Claude Scott and Co., displaying a series of credits from July, 1829, to July, 1830, or a single year's operations, to the extent of £13,400, But the delusion soon vanished. One act of liberality on his part at that period, however, I think it fair to record. To a gentleman who had rendered him some literary aid, which his defective education made indispensable, he presented double, not only what he was assured would be an ample remuneration, but what exceeded fourfold the sum his friend would have been satisfied with, or had expected."