Hi Middlemarchers, I hope you are all enjoying the summer. This week's chapter was a fun read for me; it reminded me of the occasional episode in a mystery series where we get a completely new perspective on things, usually via a minor character. I'd love to see a chapter like this about Mr. Brooke or Casaubon.

As usual the questions will be in the comments.

Summary:

Across several social classes Lydgate is growing unpopular due to his ideas on reform in the doctoring profession. It began simply enough, with Lydgate telling a local grocer that he prefers to not always prescribe medication and grew after he asked to do an autopsy on the body of an elderly woman. Rumours have spread that suggest he has sinister inclinations. This, coupled with the older medical professionals in the area already disliking him for his links to Mr. Bulstrode has led to a growing distance between Lydgate and the locals. Lydgate is the only Middlemarch professional involved in the New Hospital and it seems like it isn’t going as well as expected. For the moment, Lydgate is semi-oblivious to the rumours and Bulstrode likes being the only investor in the New Hospital before Dorothea made her offer in the last chapter. Both of them like the sense of control they have over the new institution.

However, those close to Lydgate are worried for him: Farebrother advises him to keep his distance from Bulstrode and to mind his expenses while Rosamond openly mentions the rumours to him at the end of the chapter. However, Lydgate refuses to alter his practices or his ambitions. He tells Rosamond that one of his biggest inspirations is Vesalius – the founder of modern physiology who was known for stealing bodies from graveyards to learn about human anatomy. Rosamond tries to be supportive but is shocked by this admission.

References:

• The epigraph is quote from Sir Thomas Browne’s ‘Pseudodoxia Epidemica’ (Vulgar Errors)
• Burke and Hare were two murderers who sold the bodies of their victims for medical research.
• An Accoucheur was a term used for a male midwife.
• St. John Long was a quack/fake doctor who was convicted of manslaughter in 1830 after two of his patients died under his care.
• Francois Vincent Raspail (1794 – 1878) was a French chemist, physiologist and radical political figure.
• Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 64) was the founder of modern physiology. He was condemned to death by the Inquisition but received a reprieve.
• Experto crede – means ‘believe one who knows from experience’ and is a quote from the Aeneid.
• Claudius Galen (131 -201) was a Greek physician and systematiser of medical knowledge. He was seen as the traditional authority on medical knowledge for centuries.