By Fella Tor
Medical Shoot o/ "Shangri - cEa
ff
To even the most literate of medical men the name of Eustace Lovelace is little more than that. This is unfortunate, and it is the purpose of this article to raise Lovelace to that pinnacle of honour hitherto reserved for Hunter, Lister and Florey.
Lovelace was born in 1718, some ten years before John Hunter. Unlike Hunter, he was not a Scot. So much for his family history.
At the age of ten, Lovelace was articled to a Rocking-Horse manufacturer. It is understood that he painted on the spots. He suffered from spots before the eyes, so he became a cook. The sight of food revolted him, so he became a seaman.
He tired of the sea life.
The Captain swore at him.
The food was awful.
The hard work, the long hours, the lack of sleep, the monotony, the heat, the cold, were too much for him. The constant ex- posure to the sun and the moon told on him.
He decided to leave the ship. He had stuck it out for nearly ten hours; he crept off the ship on to the wharf.
In the next two years Lovelace was a thief, gypsy, burglar, murderer and poacher.
We have not reason to believe that he even failed to give of his best in these jobs.
In 1736 Lovelace decided to study medi- cine. He enrolled at St. George's Hospital (Hunter's Alma Mater). He tells us in this diary, begun about this time, that he was first drawn to study medicine by the inci- dence of fallen arches in flat feet.
The rest of Lovelace's life is traceable in his diary, this is not always easily legible, for wine, porridge, beer, spirits and gin
have been spilt on its pages over the years.
Lovelace's playful habit of mis-spelling words, and his rather spidery scrawl, render the historian's task still more laborious.
We have some other documents of Love- lace's.
We have many I.O.U.'s signed by him, apparently treasured for years by their re- cipients.
We have a cheque, which is for one hundred pounds, written in Lovelace's hand.
There is, unfortunately, no signature to the cheque.
Most of the documents are addressed to well-known Bookmakers and Madams.
Lovelace already was well known in society.
Some of the notes he left are illegible or indecipherable.
e.g.—Anny the Fanny.
Rm 16. Cvt. Garden Place.
"Joe sent Me."
We don't know what this may mean. It may be a pneumonic.
Lovelace, a poor student, was always short of money. On one occasion he had to sell his books, noting that they were "As new, hardly used", but even this loss ap- peared to make no difference to his studies.
A friend is reported to have said of him that he knew more about a certain subject than anyone else in the world.
Soon' after, Lovelace set up in practice for himself. This brilliant young man did not wait to graduate. He refused to be bound down by the foolish know-alls of his time.
He had to earn money. He was in love!
His beloved was Angela Stephenson.
There was something about her, her father's
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position as a member of the East India Company, her father's title, the several country homes, and his influence with the Court, that thrilled Eustace.
But it was not Angela's money that at- tracted Eustace. When told that she had an income of eight thousand pounds a year, he replied that he thought it was only six thousand, and the extra two thousand pounds made no difference at all to his feel- ings.
Angela must have been a beauty. We have a portrait which shows her in a blue- black farthingale, with a scarlet porringer wrapped around a slashed doublet. A belt encircles her waist in a single sweep.
She is beautiful.
(Some authorities believe the portrait is of Mrs. Siddons, others, Nell Gwynn. The painter may have been Hilliard or Turner, or possibly someone else.)
Eustace (according to the diary) got a thrill when he thought of Angela.
One night he held her hand—he got a bigger thrill.
Next week he put his hand around her waist—he got a thrill much bigger than ever before. He then had to go home.
Next month he kissed her—he got the biggest thrill imaginable.
It was obvious they would have to get married.
Lovelase reports that on the ocasion of the Kiss his pulse was 102/min, full, good
(Our illustration is an old etching. Lovelace is in the foreground. His assist- ants and instruments are well shown. In the next room an assistant reassures an anxious patient.)
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volume, vessel impalpable, etc., B.P. was not recorded. It is not known if the results are reproducible.
Angela and Eustace came to an agree- ment.
Eustace would do all the work.
Angela would be merely required to wash, cook, keep the house, garden, chase away hawkers, usher in patients, shop, and keep the accounts. Eustace was to be her slave.
At this time the great impetus given to human thought by the reformation and the renaissance had reached its peak. People refused to be bound down by such mundane considerations as ethics and morals.
It was the age of Rationalism, of Nothing to Excess.
Men, and women too, enjoyed the Good Life.
Usually they enjoyed it together.
At the same time, the birth rate was ele- vated.
Lovelace had read Malthus, and knew what that meant, or at least he thought he knew what it sounded as if it might mean.
Chaos!
The solution: (a) Birth Control—Objec- tions—inconvenient—unreliable. (b) Abor- tion—Objections—Not Cricket.
Fearlessly ignoring the objections to (b), Lovelace decided on his life's work.
He would cater for the rich as well as the poor.
He didn't care how poor they were, as long as they paid his fee in full.
His technique was crude but effective.
The patient was clubbed into uncon- sciousness.
The uterus was curetted, soaked in tur- pentine, set on fire, inverted, trampled on, and then the patient went to the recovery room.
Complaints were very few.
The hardier customers returned year after year.
It was a great saving in woman-hours.
Lovelace kept the Stately Houses of Eng- land on their feet. Everyone came to him.
Nobody raised any moral stricture against him. The children, after all, were merely cannon fodder. If the statesmen of the world showed so little respect for life after birth, why should he respect it before birth?
If the Church objected, why, it was their job to exercise better prophylaxis.
At the height of his powers Eustace was struck a body-blow. Angela refused to marry him.
Lovelace accused her of kissing someone else.
He didn't know who, he couldn't see through the telescope.
She eventually married and had four children.
Lovelace gave her away as a bad job.
He went back to his life's work. He battled for the ladies
"to the end
to save from shame and thrall".
Many an unsmirched reputation owes it- self to Lovelace.
He made many experiments with animals.
He resembled John Hunter in ever so many ways.
He even acquired syphilis.
This was apparently done in an explora- tory vein, but details are lost to us.
He became interested in astronomy.
One night he attended a lecture on Halley's Comet.
On returning home he entertained a dozen friends to dinner. He disappeared at midnight. Some time later he appeared on the roof, yelling "I'm a comet! I'm a comet!"
His trousers were on fire.
He dived past the window and exploded on the cobblestone below, like a fallen star.
His friends were overcome by grief and were unable to bring themselves to view his remains until the morning.
He was buried in an unmarked grave.
Nothing marks it, save only a marble mausoleum capped by a floodlit tower, with the simple motto, "Cave Canem" carved on it.
Lovelace was modest in death, as in life.
His greatness is unrecognised.
His profession has fallen into disrepute.
But his soul goes marching on!
The Author wishes this article to be taken in all seriousness as he is considering entering it for the essay competition on some aspect of Medical History—conducted annually (as from this year) by the Victor- ian Section of the B.M.A.
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