Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/79

 6a

One Wharton did this queer prescription fill, And thirty-three pounds sterling was his bill; For the sick lad invited all his mates To help consume these nauseating cates. And what a wild debauch those chappies had, In reckless dissipation rushing mad, With noise and laughter waking half the town, And stuffing sweets with naught to wash them down! But when the bill was borne on spicy breeze To Ceylon's isle, the prospect did not please The governor, who in that realm grown hot, Declared that Wharton might just go to pot. It angered him that while he pined with heat He had to pay for cooling things to eat; He thought of Lazarus and Abraham, Who would n't spare a drop for Dives' damn; While he was roasting in the isle of spices, He had no mind for marmalade and ices, In which his son and heir luxuriated; And so he Wharton's bill repudiated. A grosser wrong was never perpetrated. WTharton, with indignation agitated, Haled him into the Queen's dread judgment-hall; But there his quest was barren, after all. Though counsel urged that this was medicine, The judges thought that argument too thin, For though such boluses for one might pass, There was no need to physic the whole class; Though babes with measles might break out in schools, The court would not break out of settled rules; The doctor lawfully might treat the lad, But he no right to treat his playmates had; Such dose heroic was unnecessary For any youth in statu pupillari.

This case is of the first authority, — See Brooker v. Scott (Meeson & Welsby); And later, in the Cambridge county court, Miller v. Young — I have n't the report.