Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/161

RADCLIFFE. 143 prevent the return of that frail tenement of clay to its first origin, which as yet continues to be dragged on, by, " My dear Duke, " Your Grace's most obliged " And faithful servant, " John Radcliffe." Two years after the date of this letter the Duke of Beaufort was taken ill of the small-pox ; and the manner in which Radcliffe treated both the disease and the friends of the patient is thus given by Pittis — " The doctor was sent for, and found his Grace's window-shutters closed up in such a manner, by the old lady dutchess his grandmother's order, that not a breath of air could come into the room, which almost deprived the duke of the very means of respiration. This method had been observed by the physicians, in her Grace's youthful days ; and this she was resolved to abide by, as the most proper in this conjunc- ture, being fearful that her grandson might otherwise catch cold, and, by the means of it, lose a life that was so precious to her and the whole nation. She had also taken a resolution to give her attendance upon the duke in person, dur- ing his sickness, and was in the most violent con- sternation and passion imaginable when Dr. Rad- cliffe, at his first visit, ordered the curtains of the bed to be drawn open, and the light to be let in as usual into his bed-room. ' How, said the dutchess, have you a mind to kill my grandson ? Is this the tenderness and affection you have always ex- pressed for his person ? "lis most certain his grandfather and I were used after another man-