with all in it. Thomas Fitz-Stephens, the Captain of the wrecked ship, who succeeded in getting hold of the mast on which the butcher of Rouen saved his life, let go when he heard of Prince William's fate, preferring death by drowning than to survive the disaster. In modern times "speeding the parting guest" with copious draughts of wine has sometimes hastened his exit from the world. An interesting Greek epigram (by Honestus, Anthol. Graec. Palat., xi. 45) explains that forcing wine on a guest does outrage both to the wine and the drinker. The guest will secretly pour the wine on the ground, or, by drinking it, will soon become acquainted with "the bitter water of Lethe." An epigram by Leonidas of Tarentum (Anthol. Graec. Palat., vii. 660) cautions against the danger of "going out drunk on a winter's night "-an occasional cause of death from pneumonia or exposure not unknown in the Modern hospitals of London. One or two epitaphs refer to the resurrectionist " period in the history of medical and surgical anatomy 305 "Though once beneath the ground this corse was laid, For use of surgeons it was thence conveyed. Vain was the scheme to hide the impious theftThe body taken, shroud and coffin left. Ye wretches, who pursue this barbarous trade, Her soul we trust has risen to God, A place where few physicians rise." This horror of the idea of the dissection and "mutilation" of the body after death is still felt by many, but especially by the uneducated classes. The dissection of a criminal's body by surgeons after his execution was evidently in the minds of the populace (cf. Hogarth's design, "The Reward of Cruelty," to which I have already referred, in Part I. E. and Part II. v.) regarded as a kind of additional, though posthumous, ignominious punishment for the crimes committed antemortem-just as people thought of the quartering of the bodies of rebels, traitors, &c., and the exposure of the head and four-quarters on poles at the main gates and bridges and castles and open spaces of great cities. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1109), in a short Latin poem (cf. Part II. xvii.), spoke of a man dying a "second death" when his dead body is tortured (cruciatur) by worms. Scarcely more far-fetched was Petrarch's poetical conceit of a great man's "second death"-when his tomb and monument decay and fall to pieces-and his "third death"-when his writings are destroyed or forgotten (cf. Part II. xvii.). Allied to all this is the fear of having one's tomb and bones disturbed. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Hydriotaphia (1658), adduced, as one reason in favour of cremation, that ordinary burial admitted the "tragicall abomination, of being knav'd out of our graves and of having our skulls 305 See British Medical Journal, 1908, vol. i. p. 1340, and Lancet, 1903, vol. i. p. 899. 306 made drinking bowls and our bones turned into pipes." Strange, indeed, it is that, in spite of this protest of his, Norwich, the city where he lived and died, always desirous to honour him, has nevertheless allowed his skull to be exhibited under a glass case in the city museum. The royalist writer, Sir John Berkenhead, in December, 1679, gave directions in his will for his burial in the yard outside the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (by the modern Trafalgar Square, London) instead of inside the church, "because he sayd they removed the bodies out of the church." Compare the feeling which suggested the inscription placed on Shakespeare's tomb at Stratford-on-Avon:— "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare To dig the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man that spares these stones, In epitaphs and pseudo-epitaphs the alleged cause of death is naturally often of uncertain meaning to the medical reader. Thus, one may wonder what the nature of the "ague-fits" was (and also why nits were supposed to be dead) in the following epitaph, which (according to Pettigrew) was to be found at Dymock, in Gloucestershire: "Too sweetur babes you nare did see In regard to medals and portraits of physicians and surgeons it may be noted that skulls and skeletons sometimes form part of the design, not in allusion to anatomical, medical or surgical work, but for the sake of the memento mori idea. Thus, amongst the English series a skull and crossed bones, with the inscription RESPICE FINEM, constitutes the reverse design of the seventeenth century halfpenny token of the surgeon, John Brearcliffe, of Halifax (see Part III., Fig. 75). Then there is the curious frontispiece design in the Physical Vade Mecum (1741) by Theophilus Philanthropos (Robert Poole), which I have already described (see back). A printed portrait of the German surgeon, Fabricius Hildanus (1560-1634), that is to say, Wilhelm Fabry, of Hilden (near Düsseldorf), represents him, at the age of fifty-two years, with his left hand resting on a human skull, close to which, on the same table, is a rose; the skull is inscribed, Talis eris ("Such you will be"), and below is the motto, Omnis medela a Deo ("Every remedy is from God"). Many similar examples could be found. 306 According to John Aubrey's Brief Lives, quoted by Sir Sidney Lee. 307 For references to various early transcripts of these lines, see Sir Sidney Lee's Life of William Shakespeare, new edition, London, 1915, p. 486. XI. DEATH FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS, OR FOR THE SAKE OF ORDINARY DUTY OR HONOUR. MARTYRDOM FOR RELIGIOUS, PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, OR SOCIAL OPINIONS, OR IN THE INTERESTS OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY AND ADVENTURE. DUTY, HONOUR, AND MARTYRDOM, As illustrating death for the good of others, all medals and other memorials commemorating heroic deeds of life-saving, or attempted life-saving, might be included, as well as the various medals and decorations awarded to those who have risked their lives in defence of, or in helping, others. "But whether on the scaffold high, Or in the battle's van, The fittest place where man can die Is where he dies for man. " 308 In this connexion, however, it may be noted that in so far as the death of the individual man is necessary for the progress of the race, the natural death of every one may, in a kind of way, be regarded as a sacrifice or "involuntary martyrdom "-if the term be permitted-for posterity. This aspect of death, like No. xiv., may be termed an "altruistic " aspect of death. Strictly speaking, all coins, medals, and works of art, with representations or symbols of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ might be placed under this heading; for the Christian significance of such types is: Mors tua nostra salus est. Cf. especially the so-called "Wittenberger Pestthaler" of the sixteenth century, with Moses' brazen serpent on the obverse and the Crucifixion on the reverse. Some of these "Pestthaler" were perhaps really made, as Pfeiffer and Ruland pointed out, at the flourishing mining-town of Joachimsthal 308 These lines, by Michael J. Barry, appeared in The Dublin Nation, for September 28th, 1844, vol. ii. p. 809. Cf. Henry Newbolt (Farewell):— "They found the secret of the word that saith, in Bohemia. Cf. also the fine sixteenth-century medals by Hans Reinhard of Leipzig, representing the Crucifixion. The cross and monogram of Christ, used as Christian symbols, have had a curious fate, which to some extent may be followed in minor works of art. They have of course always been emblematic of the Christian doctrine of the salvation of the soul being rendered possible by the sacrificial death of Christ. The Emperor, Constantine the Great, however, after his alleged miraculous vision of the cross in A.D. 312 and his conversion to Christianity, adopted the Christian monogram for his military standard-the labarum, as it was thenceforward called with the motto, Toúr víka, or in Latin, In hoc signo vinces. The labarum appears on the reverse of certain coins of Constantine the Great, but much more frequently on coins of later emperors. Gradually the cross of Christ came to be used as a potent instrument in the pursuit of earthly power and military conquest and fame. The Crusaders marched against the Saracens and Turks with the cross as their badge and as their standard, singing their stirring military hymn, Lignum Crucis, Signum Ducis. Christians also fought against Christians, each party claiming that God was on their side, and the victors attributed their victory to the help of God. Soli Deo Gloria ("To God alone be the glory!"), or Soli Deo Honor et Gloria (“To God alone be the Honour and the Glory!"), is a frequent inscription on commemorative medals. The handle of the sword itself, owing to its shape, came to be used by the knights of Mediaeval chivalry as the emblem of the cross, symbolical of Christ and the Christian religion. This all makes one think of the allegorical picture (and the fine prints after it) by Frank Dicksee, R.A., called " The Two Crowns," representing the magnificent and spectacular entry of some triumphant ruler of the world, reflecting the brilliant light of human glory from his face and golden crown, whereas, in the shadow by the wayside stands a figure of the crucified Christ, wearing a crown of thorns (cf. the end of Part II. vi.). In regard to opposing Christian rulers, each one claiming that their victories are due to God being on their side, there is the following remarkable jeu d'esprit by Coventry K. D. Patmore (1823-1896), intended as a kind of poetical satirical paraphrase of the spirit of letters written in 1870, during the Franco-German war, by the Prussian King (afterwards the Emperor William I) from the seat of war to Queen Augusta : "This is to say, my dear Augusta, We've had another awful buster; Ten thousand Frenchmen sent below! Thank God from whom all blessings flow." In connexion with superstitious ideas of Divine help the remarkable recklessness of King Richard II ("Rufus") may be referred to by way of contrast. In a superstitious age (the end of the eleventh century) that dare-devil monarch was on one occasion desirous of hurrying |