THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE*

By J. B. LYoNs, M.l)., F.R.(~.P.I.

But buried in a foreign land, The tuneful Goldsmith lies, No k insman grasp 'd his stiffening hand. Or closed his dying eyes. Consign'd to death tha t levels all, My uncle m e t his doom, And Burke and Reynolds wept his fall, And Johnson graved his tomb.

WILLIAM HODSON.

O L I V E R G O L D S M I T H presented many faces to a world which P has not yet ceased to talk about h im: he was refer red to sneer- ingly by Horace Waipo]e as " piddl ing Goldsmith " and " that

silly Dr. Goldsmith " ; his f r iend Garr ick wrote of him as " this scholar, rake, christian, dupe, gamester, and poet " ; and in our own day St. John Gogar ty called him " ,the gcn,tle I r ish Virgil ". I te was a poet, an essayist, a novelist, a d r a m a t i s t - - a n d he was also, for a t ime at any rate, a medical practi t ioner.

I n a recent book 1 which is claimed to be " the first a t t empt at a scholarly b iography of Oliver Goldsmith published in the 20th century " the interest ing question of Goldsmith 's medical degree is relegated to a place of obscuri ty in notes at the end of the volume. " His cumulative achievement " , writes .t,his author, " in criticism, the essay, biography, history, the novel, poetry, and d rama entitles him to be honoured as the most versatile genius of all English l i te ra ture ". Seen against such a judgement a mere ma t t e r of academic sanc.tion seems too .trivial to deserve more than scant a t tent ion and the b iographer ' s perspective may be correct, but to medical readers the mys te ry surrounding Goldsmith 's degree has grea t f.ascin,ation and demands detailed t reatment .

I t is my object in this pape r to set before you what is known about Goldsmith 's connection with our profession, having par t icu lar regard to the vexed question of the medical degree which has been viewed dubiously by some and denied to him by others. I n coming to any decision about it We shall find o~rselves, final'ly, obliged to rely ~n circum- stantial evidence, for the real evidence is missing, or destroyed---or you may say it never existed. There are gaps tha t .can be filled in only by conjecture, and facts tha t may be viewed as white upon black, or as black upon white, depending on the eye of the beholder. Accordingly, before approaching .the controversial I shall outline Goldsmith 's career, ment ioning briefly certain events which must la ter be interpreted.

Oliver Goldsmith was born on the 10th November 1728 at Pallas, Co. Longford. In 1745 he entered Tr in i ty College, Dublin, as sizar and on F e b r u a r y 27t.h 1749 obtained the degree Bachelor of Arts. Af te r deciding against the Church and the Law as careers he enrolled as a medical studer~t in Ed inburgh in 1752 and later studied at Leyden, Louvain, and Padua. I n 1756 he re turned penniless to England and

*Communicat ion to the Section of the His tory of Medicine on 29th March, 1961. 121

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124 I R I S H JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

worked as an usher at a school and as an apothecary 's assistant before setting up in the pract ice of physic in Bankside, Southwark.

By 1757 he was working for Griffiths the proprietor of the Monthly Review, but in the following year he was on the poin¢ of depar ture to Coromandel as a physician w~th the East India Company. On December 21st 1758 he was rejected at Surgeon's Hall for the post of mate to a hospital.

His first book, An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe, was published by the Dodsleys in the following spring. On the 31st of March 1763 he is re fer red to as M.B. in an agreement in his own handwri t ing with Dodsley (Fig. 1) and on the title page of The Traveller (1764) he is styled Oliver Goldsmith, M.B. (Fig. 2).

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THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE ] 2 5

1768 was the first-night of The Good Natur'd Man. In the spr ing of the following year, by now a celebrated figure, he visited Oxford in the company of Dr. Johnson and the Rev. Thomas Percy, la ter Bishop of Dromore, and this visit, as we shall see, is of the greatest importance in relation to his medical degree.

In December 1769 he was appointed Professor of His tory to the Royal Academy, an honorary appoin tment of which he remarked, wri t ing to his brother Maurice, " Honours to one in my situation are something like ruffles to one that wants a shir t "

The Deserted Village was published in 1770. She Stoops to Conquer had its first-night on March 15th 177.~. Retaliation was wri t ten in 1774. In March of this year Goldsmith became seriously ill: he died on the 4th of April .

Af t e r some years his monument was erected in the Poet ' s Corner of Westmins ter Abbcy and beneath it a tablet of white marble with Dr. Johnson ' s fulsome epi taph cut ~nto its face, but a good deal more touching is the simple couplet which appeared in the St. Ja~es's Chronicle short ly a f t e r his death :

Here Faney ' s favouri te . Goldsmi th sleeps, The Dunces smile, bu t J o h n s o n weeps.

Medical Student

Return ing now to the au tumn of 1752 we find Goldsmith ar r iv ing at Ed inburgh a pockmarked, diminutive, unprepossessing figure, impecunious and with few assets other than a Tr in i ty B.A., an abil i ty to p lay the flute, to write ballads, and a liking for convivial company. Tha t he did enrol as a s tudent is an established fact. Pr ior -~ tells us that " the class-rolls of Professor Monro have been preserved and in them the name Oliver Goldsmith appears as enter ing the class of anatomy at the end of October 1752 and as pay ing £3 3s.; also as entering at the end of October 1753 and as paying another £3 3s.". His signature appears in the Obligation Book of the Royal Medical Society under the date J a n u a r y 13th 1753. (Fig. 3.)

Fro. 3 . - -Goldsmith's signature in the Obliga$ion Book of the Royal Medical Society.

To Daniel Hodson, his brother-in-law, he writes :

• . . dur ing the day I am obliged to a t t end the Public Lectures. At n igh t I a m in m y lodging. I have h~rdly ~ny other society but a Folio book a skeleton m y cat ~nd m y meagre landlady.

To his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Contarine, ,he continues on the same theme :

12(; IR;ISII JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

• . . here as recluse as the Turk ish spy at Parr is (s/c) I a m a lmos t u n k n o w n to E v e r y b o d y Excep t some few who a t tend the Professors of Phys iek as I d o . . . .

He was beholden to these for financial support. I l is life, no doubt, was less earnest than is suggested by his pious epistles. Wri£ing to Bob Bryanton , a T r i n i t y crony, he sheds formali ty : " No turnsp i t gets up into his wheel with more reluctance than I sit down to write, yet no dog ever loved the roast meat he turns better than I do him I now address . . . . " and a f t e r this .pleasing stal:t he gives a description of life in Ed inburgh tha t suggests he is enjoying the social whirl. Bu t even to B ryan ton he admits tha t " An ugly man and a poor man is society only for himself and such society the world lets me enjoy in great abundance. ' '

We do not know how well he applied himself to his studies but he says : " I read h a r d which is a thing I never could do when the s tudy was displeasing . . . . " His enquiry for his young b r o t h e r - - " How does m y poor J a c k Goldsmith ? " - - a n d his comment, " I fear his dis- order is of such a na ture that he won ' t easily recover ," smacks of a typical medical s tudent r eady to air his newly acquired knowledge of prognosis.

His cr i t ic ism of his teachers was penet ra t ing : • . . first and m o s t Deserv ing Mr. Monro Professor of ana tomy. This m a n has

b rough t t he science he Teaches to as much perfect ion as it is capable of and no t con ten t w i th bare ly Teaching a n a t o m y he launches out into all the branches of Phys ick where all h i s r emarks are new and useful . . . . P lumer Professor of chemis t ry unde r s t ands h is bus iness well b u t delivers h imse l f so ill tha t he is bu t l i t t le regarded• Als ton Professor of Materia Medico speaks much bu t to little purpose , the Professors of Theory and Pract ice say no th ing bu t wha t we m a y find in the books laid before us and speak tha t in so droning and heavy a m a n n e r t h a t the i r hearers are n o t m a n y degrees in a be t ter state than the i r Pa t ien ts . . . . Monro is the only great m a n a m o n g t h e m so tha t I intend to hear h im ano the r w in t e r and go t h e n to hea r Albinus the great Professor a t Leyden.

About December 1753 he wrote to his uncle :

I n o w prepare to go to France the 10th of next February. I have seen all t h a t th i s c o u n t r y can exhib i t in the medical way and therefore intend to vis i t Par is , where the great Mr. Farhe in , Pe t i t and Du Hammel l de Moneau ins t ruct the i r pupi l s in all the branches o f medicine. They speak French and consequen t ly I shall have the advan tage of m o s t of m y count rymen, as I am perfectly acqua in ted wi th t h a t language, and few who leave I re land are so.

Tha t he lef t E d i n b u r g h without a degree need not surprise us. " In the first p a r t of the 18th cen tury ", according to Kirkpatr ick, '~ " men went to E d i n b u r g h to s tudy not to g r a d u a t e , " and this accomplished medical h is tor ian suggested tha t one good reason for Goldsmith not taking a degree m a y have been financiaI. I f he was going on to Con- t inental schools why waste money pr in t ing a thesis in Ed inburgh?

His fa i lure to take a degree in Scotland and his reputat ion in general as a f l ~ n e u r may give the impression that he cannot have been serio,us in his pu r su i t of a profession, but it does seem that at that t ime he had hopes of r e tu rn ing to I r e l and to pract ise as a physician for he expresses himself thus to the Rev. Contar ine :

I read a science the m o s t p leas ing in na ture so tha t m y labours are bu t a relaxat iol l and I m a y t ru ly say the only th ing here tha t gives me pleasure. H o w I enjoy the pleasing hope of r e tu rn ing wi th skill and to find m y friends s tand in no need of m y assistance.

THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITII'S MEDICAL DEGREE 127

One must say, fur thermore , that he deserved success, for his remark- able generalisations regarding the gulf betwecn the physician and the quack may be read with profit at the present day. ] t is difficult to believe that the following passage with its emphasis on the basic sciences was wri t ten by an 18th century student destined to be a most con- spicuous fai lure in the practice of medicine :

Since I am up on so pleasing a topic as selfapplause give me leave to say tha t the circle of science which I have run th rough , before I unde r took the s tudy of physic, is no t only useful, bu t absolu te ly necessary to the mak ing of a skilful physician. Such sciences'enlarge our unders tanding, and sharpeu our sagacity, and wha t is a pract i t ioner wi thou t bo th b u t an empir ic , for never yet was a disorder found ent irely the same in two pat ients . A quack, unable to d is t inguish the par t icular i t ies in each disease, prescribes at a venture : if he finds such a disorder can be called by the general name of fever, for instance, he has a set of remedies which he applies to cure it, nor does he desist till his medicines are run out or his pa t ien t has lost his life. But the skilful physic ian dis t inguishes the s y m p t o m s , manures the s ter i l i ty of nature , or prunes h e r luxur iances ; no r does he depend so m u c h on the efficacy of medic ines as on the i r proper appl icat ion.

His journey to the Cont inent was in te r rup ted a t Neweastle-upon-Tyne where he suffered a spell of imprisonment. One version is that this was for a debt contracted on behalf of a fellow-student, another that he was suspected of being a Jacobite. He was held .there a fortnight , and wri t ing to his uncle he begs him to " keep it a secret . . . for if i t were once known at the univers i ty I should hard ly get a degree ."

Even tua l ly he arr ived at Ro t te rdam and proceeded to Leyden, but w ~ unimpressed :

Physic is by no means t augh t here so well as in E d i n b u r g h and in all Leyden there are bu t four Br i t i sh s tudents all necessaries being ex t r eme ly dear and the Professors very lazy (the chemical Professor e x c e p t e d ) t h a t we don ' t much care to come h i ther . . . .

He left Leyden about F e b r u a r y 1755 for Louvain. l ie wandered on, to France, to Germany, to Switzerland, to I t a l y and stayed for some time in P a d u a before tu rn ing again northwards. He arr ived at Dover early in 1756 a penniless, t a t te red vagabond.

He had Cravelled far , he had seen much, and a f te r lying fallow f o r a while the fields of his experiences would later be harvested. Mean- while what of his professional a t ta inments ? I t is said tha t he obtained a medical degree at Louvain, or, as others will have it, at Padua. And what does Goldsmith, himself, say? I t is regret table that he may have spoken differently at various times about his degree, and once, years la ter (1773) he spoke a palpable falsehood for Bishop Percy " one ra iny day a t Nor thumber land House , " was told tha t at Tr in i ty College " a f te r taking the degree of A.B. he proceeded upon the line of Physic and took the degree of M.B. when he was about 20 . . . . " Be this as i t may, there is ve ry good reason for believing that he was granted an M.B. ad eundem gradum by Oxford in 1769.

Physiciau

Oliver Goldsmith 's connection with the actual practice of medicine was sporadic and total ly unsuccessful. On his re turn f rom the Con- t inent he worked as an usher at a school and as assistant to Jacob, an apothecary, before set t ing up as physician in Bankside, Southwark.

128 IRISU JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

In 1756, Beatty, an Irish acquaintance, met him in the street:

H e was dressed, according to the fashion of the day in a sui t of green and gold, b u t old and t a rn i shed ; and his shir t and neck-cloth appeared to have been w o r n a t leas t a fo r tn igh t . H e said he was pract is ing physic and doing very well.

One of his patients, a printer 's assistant, introduced him to Samuel Richardson who gave him employment as reader and correcter.

Some time in 1756 he obt.~ined a past in Peckham at the school of the Roy. John Milner, father of a friend from his Edinburgh days. In Milner's he met Griffiths, the owner of the Monthly Review, and in April ]757 he went to work with him, lodging at his house.

In this year he wrote to his brother-in-law :

• . . by a very l i t t le pract ice as a physic ian and a very little r epu ta t ion as an a u t h o r I make a shif t to live.

Many of his letters bore the address Temple Exchange Coffee-house where he may have whiled away the time waiting for patients, for in the 18th century consultations frequently were held in such places. But it is certain tl~at his thoughts, as he waited, were occupied more easily by li terary aspirations than by any ambition to succeed in the medical profession• I t is quite probable that he had a genuine pre- sentiment that some day he would be famous, for we find him writing thus to his old crony Bob Bryanton :

Do y o u k n o w w h o m y o u have offended ? A m a n whose character m a y one of these days be m e n t i o n e d w i t h p ro found respect in a German commen t or Du tch d ic t ionary ; whose n a m e you will p robab ly hear ushered in by a Doct iss imus Doct i ss imorum, or hee l -p iecedwi th a long La t in t e rmina t ion . Th ink h o w Goldsmithius , or Gubblegurchius or some such sound , as rough as a nut -meg-gra ter , will become me. Think of tha t !.

But after such happy fancies of his future fame Goldsmith looks with a wry melancholy smile at his present wretchedness :

Oh Gods ! Gods ! here in a gar re t wr i t ing for bread and expect ing to be dunned for a mi lk score !

His mis'adventures in two worlds (apologies .to A. J. Cronin) earned such a meagre pittance that thinking to better himself he sought a position with the East India Company, and in August 1758 he mentions this when writing to Daniel Hodson, his brother-in-law :

I suppose y o u have heard of m y in t en t ion of going to the Eas t Indies. The place of m y des t ina t ion is one of the factor ies on the coast of Coromandcl and I go in qual i ty of Phys ic ian and Surgeon for wh ich the Company has s ign 'd m y war ran t which has already cost m e t en pounds . I m u s t also pay 50 Lb. for m y passage ten pounds for Sea s tores , and the o the r incidental expences of m y equipment will a m o u n t to 60 or 70 Lb. more . The Sal lary is b u t triffling viz 100 Lb. per ann. bu t the o ther advantages if a pe r son be p ruden t are considerable . The pract ice of the place if I a m r ight ly in formed general ly a m o u n t s to n o t less t han one thousand pounds per ann. for which the appo in ted Phys ic i an has an exclusive privelege, th is wi th the advar~tages re- sui t ing f rom trade w i th the h igh in teres t which m o n e y bears viz 20 per cent. are the inducements which persuade m e to undergo the fat igue o f sea the dangers of w a r and the stil l greater dangers of the c l imate . . . .

In the following January writing to the Rev. Henry Goldsmith he says :

I have m e t w i th no d i s a p p o i n t m e n t w i th respect to m y Eas t Ind ia Voyage no r are m y reso lu t ions al tered, t h e ' a t the same t ime I mus t confess it gives me some pa in to th ink I a m a lmos t beginning the world at the age of t h i r t y one . . . .

THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE 129

I t must be again noted that in December 1758 he had been rejected at Surgeon's Hall (Fig. 4) but unless he is seeking to deceive his rela- tions this has altered neither his resolution to go to Coromandel nor his r ight to employmen¢ with the East India Company. This is the last we hear of the proposal, however, for in Apri l 1759 An Enquiry into the State of Polite Learning in Europe was published. F rom now on, as he rises in the l i terary scale, he is less concerned with medicine.

Tbat is not to say that he gave up practice altogether for in 1762 he looked af ter Sir William Abner and showed competence in prognosis, at any rate, for having re turned from the funeral he writes :

I a t t e n d e d h i m as h is f r iend a n d p h y s i c i a n d u r i n g h i s l as t i l lness. I soon saw t h a t he was d y i n g . . . .

In 1765, at the suggestion of friends, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, hc again embarked seriously on medical practice for by Chen The Traveller had earned him a certain renown which they hoped would bring him patients.

... .... ¢, . . A ..

Fro. 4 . - - O l i v e r G o l d s m i t h , f ound n o t qual i f ied for t he R o y a l Medical S o c i e t y - - f r o m t h e E x a m i n a t i o n R e c o r d s o f t h e S u rgeon ' s C o m p a n y .

He engaged a man-servan, t and decked himself out suitably, or so he thought, but Pr io r remarks : " Transformations of this kind in men who are more familiar with books than with common life are often in extremes . . . . " This biographer gives us a picture of Goldsmith

a n exceed ing ly s m d r t p h y s i c i a n d ressed t in a] c o n s p i c u o u s a n d expens ive , t h o u g h as appea r s f rom the f a sh i on o f t h e day , n o t a t all a n u n u s u a l med i ca l garb . A profess- iona l wig a n d a cane, pu rp l e sma l l c lo thes , a scar le t r oque l au re b u t t o n e d to t he chin.

The second serious ven,ture into practice was again unprofitable. Fo r one thing he was temperamenCally unsuited to it, unable to adopt a becoming gravity, complaining " that he was now shut out f rom many places where he had former ly played the fool very agreeably ", for another, he was probably quite incompetent as is suggested by his management of the unfor tunate Mrs. Sidebotham.

This l~dy, a f r iend of his, called him in when she was ailing, but his prescription so alarmed an apothecary that he refused .to dispense it. Goldsmith would not al ter it and a somewhat acrimonious argument ensued in which nei ther physician nor apothecary would give way. Nothing was left but an appeal to the patient, but Mrs. Sidebotham, alas, forget t ing fr iendship and valuing her health, took the advice of the apothecary.

Greatly riled by the incident Goldsmith quitted the house and later

130 I R I S h JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

declared tha t he would cease prescribing for his friends, leaving him- self open to the sardonic humour of Topham Beauclerk. " Do so, m y dear Doc to r , " was Beauc le rk ' s rejoinder, " whenever you under take to kill let it only be your enemies ."

F r o m now on, a.part f r o m the Oxford M.B. in 1768, no.thing is heard of him as a phys ic ian and we may tu rn to. his l i terary works to see w h ~ we can of the medical man in his writings. We must, of course, remember the old adage " by the t ime he is fifty a man is either a fool or a physician " and much of what we find there would be known to an intelligen~t lay-man. Only the t ru ly inspired, however, could use the pica of p r egnancy in such an incomparable simile as does Goldsmith when he wr i t es : " My desires are as capricious as the big-bellied woman ' s who longed for a piece of her husband 's nose."

And surely no more kindly interpretat ion of senile dementia has ever been penned ~han tha t in his let ter to Mrs. Jane Lawder re fer r ing to the Rev. Contar ine :

l i e is no m o r e t h a t sou l o f fire as w h e n once I knew h im. N e w t o n and Swif t g rew d i m w i t h age as w e l l as he. B u t w h a t sha l l I say ; h is m i n d was too ac t ive an in- h a b i t a n t n o t to d i s o r d e r t he feeble m a n s i o n of i ts abode, for the r i ches t jewels soones t w e a r t h e i r s e t t i n g s . Y e t who b u t t he fool wou ld l a m e n t h is cond i t ion , he now forge ts t he c a l a m i t i e s of l i fe , p e r h a p s i n d u l g e n t heaven has g iven h i m a fo re tas te of t h a t t r a n q u i l l i t y he re w h i c h he so w e l l deserves hereafter .

Actual ly , despite his vast l i te rary output Goldsmith 's medical refer- ences are s ingular ly few and usually take the form of gentle humour a t the expense of the f ra te rn i ty .

I n a prologue wr i t ten for She Stoops to Conquer he refers to :

D o c t o r s who cough and answer eve ry mi s fo r tune r • I w i s h I ' d b e e n c a l l ' d in a l i t t l e sooner '.

I n the well-known Elegy on the Glory of her Sex, Mrs. Mary Blaize hc is ha rk ing back to Southwark, for Ken t Street was near Bankside :

The d o c t o r s found , w h e n she was dead H e r l a s t d i s o r d e r m o r t a l . L e t us l a m e n t , i n sor row sore, F o r K e n t s t r e e t w e l l m a y say , T h a t h a d she l i v ' d a t w e l v e m o n t h more She h a d n o t d i e d to -day .

'l~he Epi logue to The Good Natur'd Man con.~ains an interest ing reference to a conflict between the Licentiates and Fellows of the Royal College of Physic ians then s i tuated at Warwick Lane. The iraCe Licentiates marched in a body on the College in 1767 demanding repre- sentat ion on the College committees. Goldsmith seeking someone among his f r iends to wr i te an epilogue at short notice turns in desperat ion to a medical colleague who replies :

W h a t , I ! dea r Sir, t h e D o c t o r in te rposes ; W h a t ! p l a n t m y t h i s t l e , Sir, a m o n g his roses ! No, no , I ' v e o t h e r c o n t e s t s t o m a i n t a i n ; T o - n i g h t I h e a d our t r oops a t W a r w i c k Lane.

To Mrs. B u n b u r y (sister of the Jessamy Bride) who addressed him as " my good Doctor " , he writes :

TIlE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE 131

Pray, Madam, where did you ever find the epi thet ' good ' applied to the t i t le of Doctor ? H a d you called me learned Doctor , or grave Doctor , or noble Doctor , it might be allowable because they belong to the profession.

Sir Will iam Hale-White 4 remarks that the Man in Black makes no reference to medicine and that the only sentence in A n Enquiry into the State of Polite Learning in Europe " tha t even suggests that the author is a doctor " is in Chapte r X I I : " I n an In f i rmary the s tudent who only at tends to the disorders of a few pat ients is more likely to understand his profession than he who indiscr iminately examines them al l ." Some advice on correct diet for children is given in The Bee. A doctor is not mentioned in The Deserted Village. The Vicar of Wakefield contains only one br ief reference : " Physicians tell us of a disorder in which the whole body is so exquisitely sensible tha t the slightest touch gives p a i n . " Sir Wil l iam also informs us that Goldsmith showed some acquaintance with physiology in the Critical Review for June 1759.

Quacks are dealt with sat ir ical ly in The Citizen of the World :

Whatever be the mer i t s of the Engl ish in other sciences (writes the Chinese Phi losopher in his 24th letter) , they seem peculiarly excellent in the a r t of healing. There is scarcely a disorder incident to h u m a n i t y against wi th which they are not possessed wi th a mos t infallible antidote. The professors of other ar ts confess the inevi table intr icacy of th ings ; ta lk wi th doubt and decide wi th hesi ta t ion ; bu t doubt ing is ent i re ly u n k n o w n in medicine ; the advert is ing professors here delight ia cases of difficulty ; be the disorder never so radical you will find n u m b e r s in every street , who, by levelling a pill a t the par t affected, promise a certain cure w i thou t 1 oss of t ime , knowledge of a bed-fellow, or h indrance of business.

Most of these physicians have received their knowledge by inspirat ion ra ther than education, and when such a one is sent for, " he never perplexes the pat ient by previous examination; he asks very few ques- tions and those only for f o rm ' s sake . . . . He administers the pill or drop for every distemper; nor is more inquisitive than the fa r r ie r while he drenches an horse. I f the pat ient lives, then he has one more to add to the surviving list; if he dies, then it may be jus t ly said of the pa t ien t ' s disorder, that as it was not cured, the disorder was incurable."

The Philosopher re turns to the same theme in the 78th let ter and has something to say also about specialisation :

No less t han ten different hands are requi red to make a p in ; shall the body be set r ight by one single opera tor ?

The Engl ish are sensible of the force of th is reasoning ; they have therefore one doctor for the eyes, ano the r for the toes ; they have the i r sciatica doctors , and inoculat ing doctors ; they have one doc tor who is modes t ly con ten t wi th securing them f rom bug bites, and five hur~dred who prescribe for the bi te of m a d dogs.

The Chinese Letters concluded in the Public Ledger on August 14th 1761 and on Augus t 27th 1761 a review of Auenbrugger ' s Inventum Novum (published that year in Vienna) appeared in the paper. Attention was drawn to this anonymous review in 1927 by Professor Crane 5 who at t r ibuted it to Goldsmith. I t is a fascinat ing thought that such an unprogressive physician introduced the invaluable method of percussion to England where for m a n y years it was to be ignored by his inattentive colleagues.

] ~ 2 IRISH JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

Friends, Illness and Death Goldsmith ' s fa i lure in practice caused him no resentment towards the

medical profc.qsion, and when his nephew Will iam Hodson a came to London he dissuaded him f rom going on the stage.

I do no t know h o w he could have contracted so beggarly an affection, Goldsmi th wrote to the b o y ' s fa ther in 1770, bu t I have turned h im f rom it and he is sincerely ben t on pur su ing the s t udy of physic and surgery in which he has a l ready made a considerable progress and to which I have warmly exhor ted h im.

The readiness with which he wrote to Will iam Hun te r on his nephew's behalf suggests tha t he may have had some aequain¢ance with that celebrated physician. (Fig. 5.)

FIo. 5 . - - A le t ter f rom Oliver Goldsmith to William H u n t e r - - f r o m the original in the possession of tho Royal College of Surgeons.

Most of Goldsmi th ' s f r iends were l i terary men, a few of whom, Smollett, Gra inger and Glover, for example, had had some connection with medicine, t i e was also on f r iendly terms with a number of prac- t ising physicians among whom were Dr. Rowley, Dr. Mackenzie, Dr. Baker (who was Sir Joshua Reynolds 's physician), and Dr. Nugcnt, fat.her-in-law of E d m u n d Burke, and a member of the Club.

I tc wrote to Dr. Mackenzie in 1771 or 1772 :

*Later H o d s o n was appo in t ed Surgeon in an E a s t - I n d i a m a n and made a voyage to China. He m a y have prac t i sed for a shor t t ime in London b u t returned to I re land when he inheri ted a p rope r ty and led the life of a coun t ry gent leman.

THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE 13.']

Dr. Goldsmith presents his compliments to Dr. Mackenzie, he will be at home this day till three, or at any other time the Doctor shall appoint. Or he will wait upon him at Southwark. He is engaged to dinner every day for this six or seven days.

Al l i nv i t a t i on ( p r e s u m a b l y be la ted) to a p a r t y a t Dr . B a k e r ' s r e su l t ed in the a m u s i n g verses commenc ing :

Your mandate I got, You may all go to pot, I-Iad your senses been right. You'd have sent before night.

W i l l i a m B l i z z a r d d r a i n e d his m a n - s e r v a n t ' s e m p y e m a and W i l l i a m I I awes was G o l d s m i t h ' s p e r s o n a l phys i c i an .

A p a r t f r o m sma l lpox in ch i ldhood the re is no r eco rd of i l lness in G o l d s m i t h ' s e a r l i e r days . H e wro te to his p u b l i s h e r in 1762 :

As I have been out of order for some time past aud am still not quite recovered the fifth volume of Plutarch's lives remains unfinish'd . . . .

I n 1772, a c c o r d i n g to P r i o r , he was t r o u b l e d by " A s h a r p a t t a c k of i l lness of a p e c u l i a r l y p a i n f u l n a t u r e . . . . " A n d the Ge~eral E v e n i n g Pos t r e p o r t e d t h a t " Dr. Go ldsmi th has been d a n g e r o u s l y il l of an in f lamma¢ion of the b l a d d e r : he was cu t on S u n d a y las t b y Mr. Po t t , when an a m a z i n g d i s cha rge of p u r u l e n t m a t t e r p roceeded f r o m the p a r t . " B u t J a m e s ' s P o w d e r s were g iven u n d e r the di~.ection of Dr . J a m e s h imse l f a n d Go ldsmi th was conv inced of t he i r efficacy.

H e became ind i sposed a g a i n in March 1774, affected b y d y s u r i a (which P r i o r i n g e n u o u s l y a t t r i b u t e d to " close a p p l i c a t i o n to his desk ") a n d c o n t i n u e d to be il l even when the acu te s y m p t o m s c leared. H e ca l led in W i l l i a m Hawes , b u t p roved so i rasc ib le a n d uneo-ope ra t ive a p a t i e n t t h a t t I a w e s d i d no t wa i t v e r y long before b r i n g i n g in a Dr . F o r d y c e in consu l t a t ion . Meanwhi l e Go ldsmi th h a d ins is ted, a ga in s t the adv ice of Hawcs , on t a k i n g J a m e s ' s pow de r s a n d when the effect was no t wha t he h o p e d fo r he compla ined b i t t e r l y to his s e r v a n t s : " D a m n t h a t H a w e s ! I o r d e r e d h im to send me J a m e s ' s p o w d e r and he has sent me some o t h e r . " H e ob t a ined a s u p p l y h imse l f bu t he r e m a i n e d ill , w e a k e n e d b y v o m i t i n g a n d d i a r rhoea . A f u r t h e r consul- t a t ion was a r r a n g e d w i th a Dr . Tu r ton .

Soon H a w e s w i t h d r e w f r o m the case, l e av ing h i m in charge of F o r d y c e and Tu r ton . The l a t t e r o b s e r v e d : " Y o u r pu l se is in g r e a t e r d i s o r d e r t h a n i t shou ld be f r o m the s ta te of f eve r which you have; is y o u r m i n d a t e a s e ? " G o l d s m i t h a n s w e r e d : " I t is n o t . "

On S u n d a y the 3 rd of A p r i l t he re was a change fo r the worse and convuls ions ensued. H e d ied in the e a r l y h o u r s of M o n d a y morn ing , 4 th of A p r i l 1774. a

H e was b u r i e d in the c e m e t e r y of the Temple . The exact si te of his g rave is u n k n o w n a n d the sole r eco rd in the r eg i s t e r r e a d s : '" B u r i e d 9 th Apr i l , Ol iver Goldsmi th , M.B. , late o f B r i c k Court , Middle Temple . ' "

*I-Iis dispute with I-Iawes caused much gossip and ~he latter published An Account of the late Dr. Goldsmith's Illness giving his version of the case. On the whole it seems improbable that the patent medicine harmed Goldsmith and it is quite certain that it could not have helped him. A diagnosis of uraemia accounts satisfact.orily for the clinical picture and chronic pyelonephritis may have been the basic pathology.

134 IRISH JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

The Medical Degree Coming now to the much dispuCed medical degree let us first consider

what has been wri t ten about it by his biographers and others. The earliest " Life " of Goldsmith published in 1774 by Swan s and

a notice of his death in the Annual Register for that year, ~ wri t ten anonymously , are both at t r ibuted to Samuel Glover, an I r i shman who was an in t imate acquaintance• Glover said that Goldsmith " took the degree of Bachelor of Physic at Louvain . . . . " Another I r ishman, Dr . McDonnell , whom Goldsmith befriended in 1772 told Pr io r years la te r " tha t it was general ly believed by his acquaintances tha t he had g radua t ed at Louvain; that is my impression• Perhaps it may have been P a d u a for that Univers i ty had Ir ish Professors; so had Louvain; also Mannheim; and likewise the College of Maria Theresa at Brusse ls ." The Rev. J . Evans, 8 in 1806, wrote: " Having p,assed some t ime also at S t r a sburg and Louvain, where he obtained a degree in medicine, he accompanied an English gentleman to Geneva . . . . " His evidence was based on informat ion received f rom a daughter of the Rev. Milner who m a y have heard this directly f rom Goldsmith• I t is interesting tha t a l though the Rev. Evans expressly states ~hat he never obtained a degree super ior to tha t of Bachelor of Physic the account is headed Memoir of Oliver Goldsmith, M.D., a good example of ¢he careless way in which p r in te r s handle medical degrees•

The so-called Pe rcy Memoir '~ published in 1801 was a hotch-potch wr i t t en by several hands. ~° Here we find a note of doubt, " . . . . if ever he took a medical degree it was probably in Chat anc~en¢ school ~)f medicine " (Padua). B u t a footnote taken f rom Bishop Percy ' s papers states : " I n F e b r u a r y 1769 Dr. Goldsmith made an excursion to Oxford with Dr. Johnson and was admit ted in that celebrated univers i ty ad eundem grad~tm, which hc said was that of M.B."

Sir W a l t e r Scott ~ remarked cau¢iously in 1835: " . . . . (he) is said to have taken a degree a t L o u v a i n . "

Sir J a m e s Pr ior , who wrote the first ma jor biography, published in 1837, had explored the ma~ter more thoroughly than anyone hitherto. Enqui r ies at Leyden resulted in the following reply :

Mr. H u d s o n presents h is c o m p l i m e n t s to Mr. Prior, and begs to inform h im, t ha t :Dr. Wenekebaeh of Breda has had the kindness to request of Professor Re inward t to ascer ta in f rom the A l b u m Academicum of the Universi ty of Leyden, whe the r Goldsmi th was a s tuden t f rom 1754 to 1756, or whether a degree was conferred upon h i m b y t h a t Un ive r s i ty ; the resul t of ~he inqui ry is in the negative.

Pr io r mentions tha t the records at Louvain were lost but he thought it improbable tha t Goldsmith obtained a degree there. Of Padua, he remarks

• . . here he is supposed to have taken his medical degree, a l though no sat isfactory p r o o f c a u be gleaned af ter m i n u t e enquires . But it is suggested by competen t au tho r i t y in such ma t t e r s , t ha t it m a y have been ob ta ined in some other univers i ty af ter one of the d i spu ta t ions in the i r halls in which b y his own admission he engaged.

His enquiry at Oxford brought the following reply f rom the Registrar , thc Rev. Bliss, da ted F e b r u a r y 24th, 1834 :

I have n o w fully ascer ta ined tha t no record of Goldsmith ' s admiss ion ad eundem exis ts u p o n the records of th i s Un ive r s i ty ; b u t I have by no mearts ascer tained tha t

THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITIt~S MEDICAL DEGREE 135

the Poe t was no t so a d m i t t e d ; on t he c o n t r a r y I inc l ine to be l i eve t h a t t he B i s h o p of Dromore ' s impre s s ion was correct . I t i s a s i n g u l a r fac t t h a t the re is a c h a s m in the Reg i s t e r of C o n v o c a t i o n for 1769 f rom March 14 to March 18 w h i c h was t he l a s t d a y of the Len t t e r m , and i t is poss ib le c e r t a i n l y t h a t t he a d m i s s i o n of G o l d s m i t h m i g h t h~,v~ t a k e n p lace in t h a t i n t e r v a l . . . .

Prior was convinced that Goldsmith possessed a valid degree and his work is entitled The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.

Macaulay, 12 wri t ing for the Encyclopaedia Brita~nica in 1856, ex- pressed d'oubt sarcastically: " He had, indeed, if his own u~sup,ported evidence may be trusted, obtained from the University of Padua a d~ctor's degree." A llibone 13 in 1859 wrote: " Whilst abroad either at Padua or Leyden he took his degree of B'~ehe]or of Medicine." Forster, 14 in lS77, thought that " there can hardly be a question that the degree, a very simple and accessible matter, at any of them, was actually con- ferred. Webb ~ credited him with medical degrees from both Leyden and Padua. Washington I rv ing (1880), 1" less sure. remarks: " at Padua . . . he is said to have taken his medical degree." Gibbs (1885) thought it " . . . . u n c e r t a i n whether it was here (Leyden) . . . or at Louvain, or as some affirm, at Padua . . . that he took his degree of Bachelor of Physic which was confirmed to him by the University of Oxford in 1769."

Dawson, ~' in 1886, took the opposite s tandpoint : " At Edinburgh he preferred drinking whiskey and singing songs to the study of anatomy • . . at Louvain, it is stated, he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Physic. (I hope it is true, but I doubt it.) " Austin D(~bson I'~ also was doubtful : " Louvain seems to have been his first ta r ry ing place, and here, tradit ion affirms, he obtained that ' mtthority to slay ', the degree of M.B., later appended to his name. But the records of the University were lost in the wars of the Revolution and the statement cannot be verified." The National Dictionary of Biography is ram-committal : " He is reported to have taken the M.B. degree at Louvain or again at P a d u a . " Waller remarks: " We get a view of him at Louvain where it is said on slight authori ty that he got the degree of M.B . . . . " and Timbs ~ mentioned that " . . . . (he) is said to have taken a degree at Louvain ."

Dr. John Morris of Baltimore, in 1896 (cited by Clarke), " after a very fai thful research," found himself " constrained to declare that his eduea/don did no~ fit ,him for a professional life or that any university, under the most lax conditions, could have granted him a degree . . . . " F. F. Moore, 2° nevert,beless, said in 1910: " That he had a medical degree there can scarcely be any doubt ," and Padraie Colum 2~ remarked : " He also brought back a degree of the University of P a d u a . "

Sir Ernest Clarke :~ addressed the Historical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1914 on the .theme of Goldsmith's degree. Refer- r ing to Macaulay 's sce,p,ticism he said : " This attack I regard as wholly unfounded and monstrously un fa i r . "

Sir Ernest thought there was " absolute evidence to disprove " a degree from Padua and regarded it unlikely that he had taken one at Leyden or I~uv~in. " We must, therefore," he said, " lo'ok nearer home for such a degree." He requested Sir William Osler, then Regius Professor of Medicine, to have the Oxford records re-examined. This ~as done with a negative result. The indefatigable Osler, however,

1,~(~ IRISH JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

extended the search to the local newspapers and discovered in Jackson's Oxford Journal for Sa turday , F e b r u a r y 18th 1769 the following informal ion :

Yesterday Oliver Goldsmith, Esqr. , Bachelor of Physic in the University of I)ublin, author of The Traveller, a poem, of the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe, and of several other learned and ingenious Performances, was admitted in Congregation to the same Degree in this University.

This remarkable find caused Clarke to decide that Goldsmith 's original medical degree was f rom Dubl in and must have been granted between 1756 when he re tu rned to England and 1765 the date of his agreement with Dodsley.

His mas te r ly pape r provoked a reply and Dr. Raymond Crawfurd, ~3 address ing the same body in the following year, said that the evidence pu t fo rward was :

compatible only with the presumption that Goldsmith had no degree in medicine a t all, other than tha t conferred by Oxford University in 1769, probably under a misapprehension.

Canon Monroe 24 delivered a commemorative address in the Chapel of T r in i ty College, Dublin, i n 1926 and mentioned the difficulty of p rov ing the degree at Louvain or Padua, but credited Goldsmith with the M.B. (ad eundem) conferred a t Oxford.

Sir Wil l iam Hale-Whi te in 1929 wrote: " He was a physician of vchom our profession m a y be well proud, for he wrote the best comedy in our tongue, and Goethe sa id : ' I t is not to be described the effect tha t Goldsmi th ' s Vicar had upon me jus t at that critical moment of menta l development . . . . ' "

OXFORD, February 18. Dr. Smith 's Courfe of Anatomical Lectures will begin, at the Mufeum, this Evening

at Six o'Clock.

Yefterday Oliver Goldfmith, Efq ; Batmhelor of Phyfick in the Univerfity of Dublin, Author of the Traveller a Poem, of the prefent State of Polite Learning in Europe, and of feveral other learned and ingenious Performances, was admitted in Congregation to the fame Degree in this Univerfity.

Fie . 6 . - -Ex t rac t from Jackson's Oxford Journal, Feb. 18th, 1769.

Dr. T. P. C. Ki rkpa t r i ck , the historian of the Medical School of Dubl in Univers i ty , lectur ing in Che School of Physic, gave a considered opinion tha t Goldsmith may have obtained a medical degree f rom Trini ty . He took C r a w f u r d to task for the suggestion that Goldsmith had deceived the Oxford authorit ies, pointing out ra ther testily tha t " . . . . (he) has no au thor i ty fo r his statement other than his own word . . . . Most people will, we believe, p re fe r to assume the integr i ty of Goldsmith ' s word ra the r than the judgment of Dr. Raymond C r a w f u r d . "

Stcphe Gwynn (1935Y ~ decided that " at some period he acquired a degree . . . . " R . W . Jackson (1961) 2~ wrote: " Oliver Goldsmith as a medical doctor always seems a pitiable f i g u r e . . . Af te r vague European wander ings Oliver did come back claiming to be a Bachelor of Medicine of Louvain. Nobody has managed to prove tha t the degree was bogus (nei ther has any proof appeared that it was g e n u i n e ) "

THE M¥STER, Y OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE 1,~7

Freeman (1951) 27 pointed to the lack of proof but added " . . . . it has been argued ¢h~t the obtaining of a Continental degree in medicine would have been a comparatively simple mat ter for a college-bred visitor with a workable knowledge of Greek, Lat in and F rench . " Dr. J. Garland ~s in 1952 wrote: " Curiously enough, he probably somewhere did acquire a medical degree on these informal travels . . . . "

And only a few years ago a reviewer 29 in the Lancet asked " did not Oliver Goldsmith hold a medical degree?" but Professor Hubble ~ objected, recalIing Crawfurd ' s paper.

I t is clear that most of these uncritical statements, either for or against the degree, are worthless, merely copied down from previous accounts. Apar t f rom the contemporary evidence of Glover and Evans those of importance are Sir Ernes t Clarke's and Kirkpat r ick ' s papers upholding Goldsmith, and Crawfurd ' s for the opposite viewpoint.

Professor Hubble mentions Crawfurd ' s " shy foot-note " suggesting that Goldsmith perpe t ra ted a hoax at Oxford, but there was nothing shy at all about 'this paper which was, indeed, a consummate performance and contained, one can fair ly say, ,something of the vehemence of a Public Prosecutor ra ther than the objectivity required of an unbiassed historian. Crawfurd claims that Goldsmith lied when he spoke of taking a medical degree at Tr in i ty when he was twenty; he points sternly to the University records where Goldsmith's name cannot be found; he a'sks why, if Goldsmith was a physician, did he not practise immediately on re turning to England ra ther than taking the wretched post as usher; he confronts him with his pit iful rejection at Surgeon's Hal l and with his surprising fai lure to proceed to Coromandel; he suggests that the ent ry in Jackson's Oxford Journal was the f ru i t of a characteristic jape; he insinuates that the courtesy title Doctor, bestowed so readily, is quite meaningless. All the arguments against a degree are marshalled competen¢ly by Crawfurd and it remains to see can they be answered.

We must first .concede a point. I t is patent that Goldsmith was i~correct in saying he took a degree at Tr in i ty when he was twenty. But that is not to say he never obtained a medical degree there, or elsewhere. Surely his fib is no more than " red-brick " looking with longing at an old foundat ion or, in this .case, a preference for a British rather than a Continental University. There is a good deal of snobbery about degrees, and we have all heard of graduates who have been pleased to masquerade in borrowed garments.

The failure to find his name in any University register seems, at first sight, conclusive and damning evidence, and much has been made of it. I t is n~t, however, such a simple thing to look into ill-kep~ and ill-written records, and it is relevant to recall that there was consider- able doubt at one stage as to the validi ty of his B.A., his name being overlooked in a hasty examination of the records. Furthermore, it is not generally appreciated that 18th century records were carelessly kept and notoriously inaccurate. F rom these lists Albums and Cata- logues have been compiled which must be even more inaccurate. Sadlier:" has the following to say : " the Catalogue of Graduates published by

138 I R I S H J O U R N A L OF MEDICAL S C I E N C E

Dr. James t t en tho rn Todd contained an amazing number of errors both in names and dates . . . the work was completed when he was suffer- ing f rom fai l ing sight, with the result that the proof-sheets were never proper ly revised ."

So much for Universi ty records! Crawfurd 's next point tha t Goldsmith should have s tar ted practice immediately merely shows his lack of sympa thy for the vagabond arr iving penniless in a city where he was unknown. How could he do so? The obvious thing was to take anyth ing that tu rned up, even the job of an usher. As soon as he met Dr. Sleigh, however, he did, with his f r iend 's help, set up as a physician, and one can argue that Sleigh must have been convinced that Goldsmith had a degree, otherwise why help him to start in a profession for which Sleigh must have known he was generally and temperamentally unsuited ?

The fai lure to go to Coromandel has been explained on political grounds22 The area he was destined for was taken by the French, a fa~t the East India Company was unwilling to disclose, and his depar ture for the East was delayed. Before other arrangements could be made his commencing success in l i terature caused him to alter his plans. His reject ion at Surgeon 's Hal l is not difficult to unders tand: this may, as Ki rkpa t r i ck suggests, have been merely for lack of indentures, but even if it were for lack of knowledge this need not surprise us for ~one can well imagine Goldsmith passing muster among the loquacious and theoz~sing physicians but quite inadequate when faced with `the simple practicali t ies of 18th cen tu ry surgery. What is more difficult to answer is why should a qualified physician have to sit such a lowly examination at all?

In the 18th century physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries were separated, in theory, ~t any rate, by rigid boundaries. A physiM~n who wanted to take free passage as surgeon's mate on an East Indiaman might well be obliged to presen~ himself at Surgeon's Hall, or it may have been a formal i ty related to his employment, for it was the preroga- tive of the Surge~)n'.s Company to examine candidates for servioe with the Eas t India Company. ~3

No one can have been more surprised than Goldsmith when he was rejected, for the fact tha t he borrowed money to buy a decent suit to a t tend the examination shows tha t he was quite serious about it. Indeed, his behaviour was exactly ,that of a medical graduate sitting without adequate thought for some minor diploma and being ploughed.

Crawfurd ' s in terpre ta t ion of the Oxford incident as a joke has been harshly commented on by Kirkpat r ick; his debunking of the title Doctor may be a dis tor t ion of the facts. In the 19th century this courtesy was bestowed on all and sundry, but it appears that in Goldsmith's day it was usually reserved for graduates in physic of a university2 ~

I t is interest ing that when Crawfurd read his paper the PresideNt of the Section, Norman Moore, remained unconvinced, and as his argu- ments seem both biassed and fallacious we should now turn to Sir Ernes t Clarke's suggestion that Goldsmith obtained a degree from Dublin University between 1758 and 1763. I f so, it must have been obtained without examination, for he never re turned to Ireland, and it does not seem to have been recorded. Is ,this, you may ask, unprecedented? One may answer, quite emphatically, it is not.

THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE 139

I t was so common, indeed, for Dublin Univers i ty to grant medical degrees " by special grace " in the mid-eighteenth century that the Royal College of Physicians in I re land lodged a pro¢est2 ~ And there are a number of famous men who ]lad degrees that were not recorded.

Constantine Barber , K i n g ' s Professor of Materia Medica, is described as M.D. Dublin in the Book of Electors' Proceedings, but the degree cannot be t raced in the College Register. Sir Fielding 0uld, ~ the dis- t inguished man-midwife, was granted a B.A. so that he could proceed to a degree in physic. La te r he was granted an M.D. but there is no record of his M.B. degree. Richard Brocklesby, a school-mate of E d m u n d Burke, is recorded in Cambridge incorporated M.D. from Dublin, but in Tr in i ty there is no record of either his at tendance or his degree. La te r he became F.R.C.P. and physician to Dr. Johnson.

The con,tention that Goldsmith had a Dublin degree can be reason- ably supported, but the greatest a rgument for his degree, whatever its provenance, is its acceptance by his contemporalfies. He was a butt, at t imes an object of derision, but no one ever suggested that Goldsmith was a medical f raud. He was not without enemies and he was accused of l i te rary humbug.

T h e gauze is so t h i n (wrote one of h is enemies ) , t h a t t he ve ry foolish par t of t h e wor ld see t h r o u g h i t , a n d d i scove r t h e D o c t o r ' s m o n k e y face a n d c loven foot. Y o u r poe t i c v a n i t y is as u n p a r d o n a b l e as y o u r pe r sona l ; wou ld m a n bel ieve it , and will w o m e n bear i t , to be to ld , t h a t for hour s , t h e great G o l d s m i t h will s t and su rvey ing h i s g r o t e s q u e o u r a n g - o u t a n g figure in a p ier glass .

Kenrick, who hated him, wrote af ter his death :

B y h i s o w n a r t w h o j u s t l y d ied A b lunde r ing , a r t l ess su ic ide ; Share , e a r t h - w o r m s share , s ince n o w he ' s dead H i s m e g r i m , m a g g o t - b i t t e n head .

His intimates in ~the Club were as critical a group of men .as ever existed and would have taken pleasure in exploding his pretensions. Bu t Garr ick included the following in his Prologue to She Stoops to Conquer:

One h o p e r e m a i n s - - h e a r i n g t h e m a i d was ill A doctor c o m e s t h i s n i g h t to s h o w h i s skill. To cheer he r hea r t , a n d g ive y o u r m u sc l e s m o t i o n , H e in five draughts prepa r ' d , p r e sen t s a po t ion , A k i n d o f m a g i c c h a r m for be a s s u r ' d , I f y o u will swallow it, t h e m a i d is e u r ' d B u t de sp ' r a t e t h e Doctor , a n d he r case is , I f y o u re jec t t h e dose , a n d m a k e w r y faces ! T h i s t r u t h h e b o a s t s , wi l l b o a s t i t whi le he l ives N o pois'nous drugs are m i x ' d in w h a t he g ives ; S h o u l d he succeed, you ' l l g ive h i m h i s degree ; I f n o t , w i t h i n he wil l receive no fee ! T h e college you, m u s t h is p r e t ens ions back , P r o n o u n c e h i m regular , or d u b h i m quack.

*Fie ld ing O u l d w a s t h e s econd Mas te r o f t h e R o t u n d a Hosp i t a l . W h e n he received h is Knighklaood a w a g wro te t h e fo l lowing l ines :

Sir F i e l d i n g O u l d is m a d e a K n i g h t H e s h o u l d h a v e b e e n m a d e a Lord b y r igh t ; For t h e n each la~ly's p raye r wou ld be, 0 L o r d , G o o d L o r d , de l iver me .

140 IRISH .JOURNAL OF MED'.CA[. SCIENCE

This Prologue would have been in the worst possible taste if there was the slightest doubt among Goldsmith's contemporaries as to his possession of a medical degree.

A fu r the r witness fo r Goldsmith's honesty is the massive integri ty of Dr. Johnson. Who can imagine Goldsmith at tempting to play a hoax in Oxford in the presence of this formidable figure for whom he had the greatest respect? Johnson knew a thing or two about degrees f o r he once a t tempted to get an M.A. from Dublin by special favour, and failed to do so. He would not tolerate an academic f raud lightly n o r own its pe rpe t ra to r as his fr iend.

If , however, we accept Sir Ernes t Clarke's suggestion we are faced with another puzzle. Wha t advantage, at this stage of his career, did an Oxford degree offer? This makes me turn again to a Continental school and possibly Gtover and the Rev. Evans were correct in saying that he had a degree f rom I~)uvain. Certain privileges, e.g. the Fellow- ship of the College of Physicians open only to graduates of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin were beyond the at tainment of physicians f rom other schools. Perhaps he aspired to the Fellowship, or possibly he hoped, some day, for a sinecure and felt that an Oxford degree might br ing this a little nearer.

The evidence does not permit one to arrive at any categorical con- clusion but the following may be said in summarF. The reco,rd~ at Louvain were des t royed: at Oxford, by official admission, they were incomplete: and at Dublin it is seen that they are unreliabIe: I t is curious that certain authors s, houtd have twisied the~ fac~s to the detr iment of Oliver Goldsmith while ignoring altogether the silent test imony of contemporary opinion. I t is a matter of simple justice, even though there still be some l ingering doubt, that the validity of his medical degree should be allowed.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the British Museum, the Royal Medical Society, and the Royal College of Surgeons for permission to reproduce the Dodsley Agreement, the Signature in the Obligation Book, and the let ter to William Hunter, respectively ; the extract from Jackson's Oxford Journal and the reproduction of the Title-page of The Traveller were obtained through the courtesy of the Bodleian Library. I must also thank Miss Jeniffer Parkes for verifying certain information in the Oxford University Registry and the Bodleian Library and for patiently answering my many queries.

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THE MYSTERY OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S MEDICAL DEGREE 141

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