Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/25

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The Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia.

that he more than once fainted from loss of blood and the violence of his feelings. "I happened," says the writer above quoted, "to be at the coffee-house when the concourse arrived there. They made a halt, while the doctor foaming with rage and indignation, without his hat, his wig dishevelled and bloody from his wounded hand, stood up in the cart and called for a bowl of punch. It was quickly handed to him; when so vehement was his thirst, that he drained it of its contents (to the health of King George) before he took it from his lips. It had been determined to give him a coating of tar and feathers; but the tub containing the material, which had been set in a conspicuous position, was overturned by a friendly officer. He was finally deposited under guard in the State House, and a few days afterwards was removed to the jail in Yorktown, where he became insane, as is said, from political excitement, and the gross indignities which had been offered to him. He died at Carlisle, Pa., in November, 1777." The height to which political animosities were carried at this period is well shown in the case of this gentleman. He was not only unanimously expelled from the Society (St. George's), of which he had long been a member, and the minute directed to be published in the newspapers, but we are told by Chris-

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