Literature and Medicine in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd i 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism Series Editors: Ian Duncan and Penny Fielding Available Titles A Feminine Enlightenment: British Women Writers and the Philosophy of Progress, 1759–1820 JoEllen DeLucia Reinventing Liberty: Nation, Commerce and the Historical Novel from Walpole to Scott Fiona Price The Politics of Romanticism: The Social Contract and Literature Zoe Beenstock Radical Romantics: Prophets, Pirates, and the Space Beyond Nation Talissa J. Ford Literature and Medicine in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 1817–1858 Megan Coyer Forthcoming Titles Ornamental Gentlemen: Literary Antiquarianism and Queerness in British Literature and Culture, 1760–1890 Michael Robinson Following the Footsteps of Deep Time: Geological Travel Writing in Scotland, 1750–1820 Tom Furniss Visit our website at: edinburghuniversitypress.com/series- edinburgh-critical-studies-in-romanticism.html 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd iiii 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Literature and Medicine in the Nineteenth- Century Periodical Press Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 1817–1858 Megan Coyer 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd iiiiii 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Megan Coyer, 2017 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/14 Adobe Sabon by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 0560 7 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 0561 4 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 0562 1 (epub) The right of Megan Coyer to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd iivv 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Contents Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations ix Introduction: Medicine and Blackwoodian Romanticism 1 1. Medical Discourse and Ideology in the Edinburgh Review 21 2. The Tale of Terror and the ‘Medico-Popular’ 36 3. ‘Delta’: The Construction of a Nineteenth-Century Literary Surgeon 88 4. Professionalisation and the Case of Samuel Warren’s Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician 124 5. The Rise of Public Health in the Popular Periodical Press: The Political Medicine of W. P. Alison, Robert Gooch, and Robert Ferguson 172 Coda: Medical Humanism and Blackwood’s Magazine at the Fin de Siècle 204 Select Bibliography 219 Index 236 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd v 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [097597/Z/11/Z]. I would like to thank the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford; the British Library Board; the Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine; University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections; the National Library of Scotland; and the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh for permission to cite and quote from manuscripts in their care. A particular thanks to the librarians in the rare books room at the National Library of Scotland, whose patient assistance enabled me to complete the core research for this book. I am also grateful to Brill/Rodopi, Pickering & Chatto, and the Association for Scottish Literary Studies for allowing me to repro- duce previously published material. An earlier version of a section of Chapter 2 appeared as ‘Phrenological Controversy and the Medical Imagination: “A Modern Pythagorean” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine’ in Megan J. Coyer and David E. Shuttleton (eds), Scottish Medicine and Literary Culture, 1726–1832 (Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2014), pp. 172–95, and a few sentences from Megan J. Coyer and David E. Shuttleton, ‘Introduction: Scottish Medicine and Liter- ary Culture, 1726–1832’ (pp. 1–22) appear in the Introduction and in Chapters 2 and 3. An earlier version of Chapter 1 appeared as ‘Med- ical Discourse and Ideology in the Edinburgh Review: A Chaldean Exemplar’, in Alex Benchimol, Rhona Brown, and David Shuttleton (eds), Before Blackwood’s: Scottish Journalism in the Age of Enlight- enment (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2015), pp. 103–16. A few sen- tences from my article on ‘The Medical Kailyard’, The Bottle Imp 15 (2014) appear in Chapter 4 and in the Coda. Like most, this book has been a long time in the making, and I owe a debt of thanks to many who made it possible. A very warm thank you to Professor Kirsteen McCue, who encouraged me to develop 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd vvii 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Acknowledgements vii this project when it was only one of several ideas scribbled in a note- book towards the end of my doctoral studies. Dr David Shuttleton’s mentorship was subsequently invaluable, both in applying for and completing the Wellcome Trust Fellowship that funded the project and in ultimately producing this book. I benefi ted from many schol- arly conversations with him, and he generously provided comments on several drafts. Likewise, Dr Gavin Miller supported this project at key junctures, most particularly at the fellowship application stage. As co-directors of the Medical Humanities Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, David and Gavin provided a welcoming and intellectually supportive environment for me to develop my ideas. Within the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow, I am grateful to all my colleagues, who make Glasgow a vibrant place to work, but I owe particular thanks to Professor Nigel Leask, Professor Jeremy Smith, Professor Murray Pittock, Dr Rhona Brown, Dr Alex Benchimol, Dr Christine Ferguson, Dr Justin Livingstone, and Professor Gerard Carruthers, each of whom provided support and inspiration at key stages. Thanks also to Dr Pauline Mackay, whose friendship both within and beyond the university has been a sustaining force. I have also benefi ted from conversations with a range of persons at conferences and meetings, but I owe particu- lar thanks to Professor Lynda Pratt, who graciously assisted me in navigating the correspondence of Robert Southey, and to Professor William Christie, who commented on an early draft of the chapter dedicated to the Edinburgh Review. This book would not have been possible without the belief, enthusiasm and guidance of the series editors, Professor Ian Dun- can and Professor Penny Fielding, who have supported the book from its earliest stages and have continually gone far beyond the call of duty in helping me to see it to fruition. I am also grateful to Adela Rauchova, Jackie Jones, Michelle Houston, and their team at Edinburgh University Press for patiently guiding me through the publishing process, and to the two anonymous readers of the book proposal, who provided invaluable feedback. I am also eternally grateful to the Wellcome Trust, not only for funding the research fellowship that enabled me to complete the research and writing of this book, but also for supporting and encouraging me at key stages, and I would particularly like to thank David Clayton, Lauren Couch, Leonie Figov, Sophie Hutchison, and 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd vviiii 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM viii Literature and Medicine Cecy Marden in this regard. The feedback of the interview panel and the anonymous readers of the fellowship application helped to shape the project, while also giving me the freedom to see where the research might take me. Lastly, and most importantly, I am grateful for the constant love and support of my family, and in particular, my parents, Ronald and Rebecca, my sister, Rachel, and my brother, Tom. In the course of fi nishing this book, I joined another family, and I would also like to thank my mother- and father-in-law, Jim and Janette Horn, for their love and support. To my husband, Graham, thank you for all your patience, love and humour. This book is dedicated to you. 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd vviiiiii 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Abbreviations BEM Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine EMM Edinburgh Monthly Magazine EMSJ Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal ER Edinburgh Review FM Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country LM London Magazine LMG London Medical Gazette MM Monthly Magazine NLS National Library of Scotland NMM New Monthly Magazine ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography PJ Phrenological Journal and Miscellany QR Quarterly Review SM Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd iixx 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM To Graham 55193_Coyer_Literature193_Coyer_Literature aandnd MMedicine.inddedicine.indd x 009/11/169/11/16 44:51:51 PPMM Introduction: Medicine and Blackwoodian Romanticism Ours is not, strictly speaking, a medical Journal, though it contains many recipes for a long life and a merry one . Yet, though Maga is neither a physician nor a surgeon, nor yet an accoucheur – (though frequently she is Fancy’s midwife) – she does not regard with blind eye and deaf ear the medical and surgical world. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (1830)1 In the early nineteenth century, Edinburgh was the leading centre of medical education and research in Britain. It also laid claim to a thriving periodical culture, which served as a signifi cant medium for the dissemination and exchange of medical and literary ideas throughout Britain, the colonies, and beyond.