Biographic clinics v 6 1909 Author:George Milbry Gould Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE CASE OF JONATHAN SWIFT.' "heredity."—To eyes with "Twenty-fifteen" acute- ness—those without the myopia of "Science," the astigmatism of pr... more »ejudice, or the amblyopia of disuse, to eyes that are the glad servants of free intellect, the medical case of Jonathan Swift is, of all, the most pathetic, even the most tragic. A good-sized book has been written upon it, and by a good head, ending in the confession of a greater mystery than that with which it began. And learned monographs upon the subject have left it clouded in more impenetrable confusion than before. Because, by necessary or chosen error, the authors recommitted the ancient blunder of careless study of the unknown disease of the unknown patient, mistakenly assuming the diagnosis to be a disease that never existed, either in this or in any patient. For science does not always beget sense, and erudition by no means brings wisdom. Almost the only striking instance of the olden philosophy of Swift's disease that looks most modern is that which traces it to the mysterious unknown god, heredity. It was indeed due to the modern-looking mind of Mr. Deane Swift." Interstate Medical Journal, vol. xv, Nos. 11-12, 1908. 2A relative of Dean Swift. "As one enterprise after another failed, the store of money dwindled; his nerves were shattered; ultimately, what may, to some extent, have been a family scourge of insanity, fell on him, and his mind gave way. His death soon followed, in 1688." (Of Godwin Swift, his uncle.) (Craik). "The Dean's father in particular," says the note, "was swung against the wall, and the violence of the blow laid him for dead upon the floor. He was then two years old; he was all his life subject to a giddiness, and so in like manner, were the Dean and his sister. It was supposed th...« less