Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/330

Graham cures. In 1775, after spending a short time in Bath, he removed to London, and established himself in Pall Mall, nearly opposite St. James's Palace. In January 1777 he began to practise at Bath, where he met Catherine Macaulay [q. v.], who afterwards married his younger brother, William; he gained, as he admits, his first start by his treatment of her. He declared that his remedies could only be taken with advantage under his own eye, and therefore on payment of fees for his attendance. He placed his patients on a 'magnetic throne' or in a bath, into which electrical currents could be passed. He also applied what he called ætherial and balsamic medicines, milk baths, and dry friction. Though attacked as a quack, he became fashionable. In the winter of 1778-9 he visited Newcastle to superintend the construction of some glass-work he required for his next venture in London. In the summer of 1779 he met Franklin at Paris, and visited Aix-la-Chapelle, where he received high testimonials from many aristocratic patients, including Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire. In the autumn he settled in an elaborately decorated house (the 'Temple of Health') on the Royal Terrace, Adelphi, facing the Thames, and advertised his nostrums, including earth-bathing (pamphlet 5). In pamphlet 7 he gave a high-flown description of his house and apparatus, which is said to have cost him at least 10,000l. His entrance hall was adorned with crutches and so forth disused by his patients. In upper rooms were large, highly decorated electrical machines, jars, conductors, and an 'electrical throne,' insulated on glass pillars, together with chemical and other apparatus. Sculpture, paintings, stained glass windows, music, perfumes, and gigantic footmen were among the attractions. The 'great Apollo apartment' contained 'a magnificent temple, sacred to health, and dedicated to Apollo.' Here he gave lectures at high prices, opened his rooms as an expensive show to non-patients, and sold his medicines. He promised relief from sterility to those who slept on his 'celestial bed' (a gorgeous structure made by one Denton, a tinman of great mechanical skill). His fame attracted Horace Walpole, who says (Letters, Cunningham, 1858, vii. 427), on 23 Aug. 1780, that Graham's is 'the most impudent puppet-show of imposition I ever saw, and the mountebank himself the dullest of his profession, except that he makes the spectators pay a crown apiece.' On 2 Sept. 1780 George Colman the elder produced at the Haymarket Theatre an extravaganza, the Genius of Nonsense,' in which John Bannister appeared as the Emperor of the Quacks, mimicking Graham's absurdities. Graham was not allowed to buy the stage bill (a burlesque on his own handbill), on which he desired to found an action for libel. The farce was played for the twenty-second time on 2 July 1781. In 1781 Emma Lyon is said to have been exhibited by Graham as the Goddess of Health [see under Hamilton, Emma (DNB00), ]. In the spring of 1781 he was forced by the expensiveness of his Adelphi establishment to move to Schomberg House, Pall Mall, which he called the 'Temple of Health and of Hymen.' His prices were lower, but in pamphlet 9 he states that he charges 50l. for the use of his 'celestial bed.' On 5 Nov. 1782 his property was seized for debt, and was advertised for sale on 20 Dec. and following days. He stimulated curiosity by artful advertisements, and was able to buy in a considerable portion of his goods. His advertisements are curious illustrations of his quackery. On 6 Jan. 1783 he advertised in the 'Public Advertiser' that he would that day pay twenty shillings in the pound on all his just debts, and stated that he was about to prosecute the 'Rambler's Magazine' for publishing 'an incorrect, mutilated, and nonsensical farrago, which they impudently and falsely call Dr. Graham's celebrated lecture on Generation, &c.' In March 1783 we are informed that the 'High Priestess' at his temple read lectures to ladies, and that 'the rosy, athletic, and truly gigantic goddess of Health and of Hymen, on the celestial throne,' assisted during the reading of the lecture.

On 29 July 1783 Graham lectured at Edinburgh in Mary's Chapel, Niddry's Wynd (see Caledonian Mercury, July and August 1783). A public repetition being prohibited, he delivered it for some days in his rooms, and published an 'Appeal to the Public,' libelling the magistrates. On 5 Aug. he published a letter approving his lecture, which was at once denounced as a forgery by the alleged author, Professor Hope. On 6 Aug. he was committed to the Tolbooth to be tried for 'his late injurious publications in this city.' He retorted by 'A Full Circumstantial and most Candid State of Dr. Graham's Case, giving an account of Proceedings, Persecutions, and Imprisonments, more cruel and more shocking to the laws of both God and man than any of those on record of the Portuguese Inquisition.' He preached in the Tolbooth to the prisoners, 10 Aug. (see pamphlet 10), and entertained his audience and the chaplain of the prison, who had also preached, with 'a mellow bottle and a flowing bowl' (Caledonian Mercury, 11 Aug. 1783). On 19 Aug. he was set free on bail of three hundred merks Scots,