6 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
extremely popular.6 It was, no doubt, during the period when
he held the deanery, that he suffered from the illness mentioned,
and drank the water from the chalybeat spring at Wethersfield.
This old mineral spring, now lost, has been noticed by Miss
Thresh and myself in our article on the Medicinal Springs of
Essex.7
One other passage dealing with medical matters shows Allen
in a somewhat curious dilemma professionally. He is writing
(p. 190) of some year in which small pox was prevalent in
Braintree—probably either 1711 or 17218—and of certain
patients who suffered from "rhume" as well as small pox. He
seems to have considered (so far as one can gather) that he could
cure them by administering a certain remedy which would
first cure the "rhume," though there was some risk that it might
kill the patient by stopping the development of the small pox-
He hesitated, therefore, to administer his remedy;
wch., at that time might have cost me my life; for the malice of the
Empirics (chiefly, John Barnard, the apothecary, and Mr. Firmin) had so
leaven'd the evil natur of the town that, had I given him anything and he.
had dyd, they would have sayd I killed him and would have assaulted me,
so I was forced to let him dy; so, by abusing my reputation, several
others in other cases have dyd, which I could without question have been
a means to preserve; but I could not carry it, so on them let it [i.e. the
blame] ly."
It was a nice point in medical etiquette. How would a
modern physician have dealt with it?
Ours is not, however, a medical society, and this fact debars
me from dwelling further on the medical aspect of Allen's notes..
I may, however, repeat the belief I have already expressed9—
that these volumes of Allen's are "worth the serious attention
of some student of the history of medicine in this country."
It is true that they are not of very early date; but, taking the
period to which they belong, it would be impossible, I apprehend,
to find a fuller personal record of the practice of medicine as
carried on at the time by an exceptionally-careful and observant
country practitioner, or to discover another equally-precise
6 Sir William Dawes (1671-1724), the youngest son of Sir John Dawes, Baronet, was born
at his father's seat, Lyons, in Braintree, and was educated at Merchant Taylors School and
at St. John's College, Oxford. Succeeding his father unexpectedly, he removed to St.
Catherine's Hall, Cambridge, of which he was chosen master in 1696, becoming chaplain to
the King in the same year. He was appointed Bishop of Chester in 1708, and Archbishop of
York in 1713.
7 See E.N., xv., p. 229 (1909).
8 See ante, pp. 160 and 161.
9 See ante, p. 158.