Note 2 — Author William Cooke

We recollect a most striking instance of this dexterity. An elderly and most susceptible lady was under the management of a respectable country practitioner, for a complication of nervous diseases. On paying one of his accustomed visits, he was alarmed for the safety of his patient. She had passed a night of unspeakable agitation, and her irritability was then excessive. It was attributed to an idea of having been poisoned by the compounder of her medicine, and she believed herself in the embrace of death. “Madam,” said the gentleman peremptorily, “I was aware of the accident, and brought with me an antidote.” He had immediate recourse to her former medicine, with some little disguise, which she took, and soon became tranquil. It is highly probable, had not some such method been adopted, she might actually have perished. See also a very interesting case in the Quarterly Review for July, 1816, p. 397.