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Robert Burns, His Medical Friends, Attendants and Biographer*

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Robert Burns, His Medical Friends, Attendants and Biographer* ROBERT BURNS, HIS MEDICAL FRIENDS, ATTENDANTS AND BIOGRAPHER* By H. B. ANDERSON, M.D. TORONTO NE hundred and twenty-seven untimely death was a mystery for which fl years have elapsed since Dr. James some explanation had to be proffered. I Currie, f .r .s ., of Liverpool, pub- Two incidents, however, discredit Syme Iished the first and greatest biog- as a dependable witness: the sword incident, raphy of Robert Burns. on the occasion of his reproving the poet Dr. Currie had met the poet but once and regarding his habits, of which there are then only for a few minutes in the streets several conflicting accounts, and his apoc- of Dumfries, so that he was entirely depend- ryphal version of the circumstances under ent on others for the information on which which “Scots Wha Hae” was produced he based his opinions of the character and during the Galloway tour. In regard to the habits of Burns. A few days after Burns’ latter incident, the letter Burns wrote death he wrote to John Syme, “Stamp-office Thomson in forwarding the poem effectually Johnnie,” an old college friend then living disposes of Syme’s fabrication. in Dumfries: “ By what I have heard, he was As Burns’ biographer, Dr. Currie is known not very correct in his conduct, and a report to have been actuated by admiration, goes about that he died of the effects of friendship, and the benevolent purpose of habitual drinking.” But doubting the truth- helping to provide for the widow and family; fulness of the current gossip, he asks Syme and it is quite evident that he was willing, pointedly “What did Burns die of?” It is if not anxious, to undertake the task. He was easily seen why he should have gone to Syme especially concerned that Burns’ good for information as Burns had lived for a friend, Mrs. Riddel of Woodley Park, time over the stamp office and it was known should not be chosen. Therefore, the opin- that he and Syme were intimate. Syme, ions to which Currie gave currency in the therefore, above all others is responsible for biography, were no doubt received with the opinions which Currie afterwards sorrowful acquiescence by many who would expressed as to Burns’ habits; and when the have disputed them, had they emanated biography was published, it was to Syme from a less friendly source. that Currie wrote for reassurance that he Subsequent writers have depended largely had done justice to his subject. It is difficult upon the material in the way of manu- to discern the reason for Syme’s attitude, scripts, letters, and information furnished but apparently the cause of the poet’s by the poet’s family, friends, Masonic *An address delivered to The Toronto Burns’ Society, November, 1926. I had promised to address the Toronto Burns’ Society on the subject some years ago, but delayed until my return from an anticipated visit to Scotland in 1925, during which I visited places associated with Burns’ life. On my return I noticed in the Manchester Guardian the review of a volume by Sir Crichton Browne, who had investigated the sources of information, and, following a process of reasoning similar to my own, concluded as I had, that Burns died of rheumatism and heart disease, and not from alcoholism. In a letter from the Rev. Wm. Muir Auld, d .d . of Cleveland, he recalls our conversations on the subject about 1920-1921, when he urged me to publish my investigations: “Otherwise, you may have the mortification of having to quote another.’’ Rev. Dr. Auld is related to the family of the Rev. Wm. Auld of Mauchline, who figures in “The Kirk’s Alarm” and others of Burns’ satirical poems, and is himself a well-known student of Burnsiana. brethren and correspondents (along with plete Works of Burns” one was surprised at not a little gossip and tittle-tattle of the numerous references in the poet’s cor- residents of Dumfries and other casual respondence, to his health at various periods acquaintances), placed at Currie’s disposal, of his life. These, collected and pieced and have thereby been influenced in accept- together, furnish a clinical record leading ing his conclusions. However, there has to the inevitable conclusion that Dr. Cur- been a gradual accumulation of information rie’s opinions were based on insufficient and criticism, pointing out inaccuracies and and unreliable information and that Burns statements disputed by reliable witnesses, died from rheumatism and heart disease. leading to a growing conviction that Dr. Burns was born January twenty-fifth, Currie unwittingly, but nevertheless grossly, 1759, the eldest of the seven children of William Burness and Janet Brown, honest, thoughtful, religious Scottish peasantry. The roof of the “auld clay biggin,” built by his father, was blown off a few nights after he was born and he himself was carried through the storm to a neighbour’s house, a fitting prelude to the eventful drama of which the closing scene was in the small house in the Mill Vennell, Dumfries, thirty-seven years later. The medical profession figures much less prominently in Burns’ writings than that of either law or divinity. Neither were his social intimacies as frequent and close with the doctors as with the lawyers and the clergy. In the convivial gatherings of which he wrote with poetic coloring: I’ve been at drunken writers’ feasts, misrepresented the habits and character of Nay, been bitch-fou ’mang godly priests’ the Scottish poet. the representatives of medicine were con- Many who have pondered on the activi- spicuous by their absence. It was the ties and read the poems and letters of lawyers and “new Iicht” ministers who Burns find it difficult to believe that these enlisted the inspired ploughboy in the are consistent with a life of drunkenness controversy that was then dividing the and debauchery; or that his early death is more liberal from the rigidly orthodox satisfactorily explained by alcoholism. The members of the Kirk in the West of Scot- question therefore naturally arises: If Burns land. While his onslaught on the “auld did not die from alcoholic excess, what was Iicht” with the keen satire and unanswer- the real cause which lead to the death, at able humor of the “Kirk’s Alarm,” “Holy thirty-seven years of age, of a man of his Willie’s Prayer,” “The Holy Fair,” and the physical strength and vigor? A positive “Twa Herds” spread the name and height- denial must be based on convincing data, ened the fame of the poet and set the establishing an intelligent diagnosis. This countryside roaring, the author unfor- was the problem which presented itself to tunately inspired fear and wrath in the me many years ago and led me to consider minds of a numerous and respected part of the sources of information, if such might be the community, which pursued him through- traced, which would afford an answer. out his eventful career and added immeasur- On reading Allan Cunningham’s “Com- ably to his troubles. When the fighting spirit was aroused he fessor Dugald Stewart, Professor of Philoso- might boast: phy in Edinburgh University, who invited The mair they talk I’m kenned the better, him to dinner in company with Lord Daer, E’en let them clash, Lord Selkirk’s son and heir, an event which yet in an opposite mood of extreme melan- he celebrated as that “ne’er to be forgotten choly and regret, which was so common with day.” him, he uttered the prayer: A more distinguished medical friend was Dr. John Moore, a Scotsman who had If I have wandered in those paths settled in London, the father of Sir John Of life I ought to shun, Moore, the hero of Corunna. At the instance As something loudly in my breast Remonstrates I have done. of Mrs. Dunlop, the earliest patroness of Where with intention I have erred No other plea I have; But Thou are good and Goodness still Delighteth to forgive. Burns may have suffered at times from wrong opinion, unwarranted criticism, ill advice and misrepresentation on the part of some of his medical friends, but it was certainly from no lack of loyalty or appre- ciation of his genius. The most democratic of the professions, in intimate contact with all classes of the community, good and bad, doctors are perhaps the most tolerant of human frailties since they can often trace them to hereditary, environmental, or phys- ical causes. Burns was at Irvine learning flax dressing in 1781, a rustic celebrity of twenty-two years known only to his companions and a Burns, Dr. Moore entered into correspond- few others as a rhymer, and there he made ence with him during the Ellisland period. his first medical acquaintance, Dr. Hamil- Moore, who was prominent in literary ton, who assisted him in the publication of circles at this time, became an admirer, the first edition of his poems at Kilmarnock, and advised him to familiarize himself five years later. with the classic mythology and the history When his father, harassed by the mis- of France and Britain, and otherwise fortunes of his farming venture at Lochlea, assumed the role of critic and mentor. He was dying of consumption, the medical urged him to abandon the provincial dialect attendant was that excellent man and and write in English; but happily the physician, Dr. John Mackenzie of Mauch- independent spirit and good sense of the line, who afterwards described so sympa- poet prevented a transition so inadvisable. thetically the Burns’ family circle. Attracted It was to Moore that Burns wrote the by the magnetic personality, and quickly autobiographical letter later so extensively perceiving the genius of the poet, he became used by his biographers.
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