Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/345

Rh Here George, Prince of Wales, first as Regent and later as King, played his part, danced and gambled and made love, built the famous Pavilion, and started Brighton on its brilliant career. Margate, Ramsgate, Dover, Deal and Weymouth all sprang into fame as watering-places at this time, and to the latter sea-side resort George III took his Queen and family to regain his fast-failing health. Natural springs and sea bathing played a large part in the medical curriculum of the day.

Medicine had advanced but little. The old family doctor was pompous, but ignorant. He carried his gold-headed cane with its round ball top, a relic of the time when it contained an aromatic mixture to guard against infection. In all cases of fever and agues bleeding was freely resorted to, and the surgeon of the day had few other refuges. Chloroform and ether had yet to be discovered; in those days operations were performed roughly, with imperfect and often unclean instruments, while the unhappy patient lay helplessly bound, conscious of every movement and enduring excruciating agonies. It is horrible to contemplate.

"I must enlarge the opening. Give me my