he Theatre; and by and by comes the
reader, Dr. Tearne, with the Master and Company, in a very handsome
manner: and all being settled, he begun his lecture, this being the
second upon the kidneys, ureters, &c., which was very fine; and his
discourse being ended, we walked into the Hall, and there being great
store of company, we had a fine dinner and good learned company, many
Doctors of Phisique, and we used with extraordinary great respect. Among
other observables we drank the King's health out of a gilt cup given by
King Henry VIII. to this Company, with bells hanging at it, which every
man is to ring by shaking after he hath drunk up the whole cup. There is
also a very excellent piece of the King, done by Holbein, stands up in
the Hall, with the officers of the Company kneeling to him to receive
their Charter. After dinner Dr. Scarborough took some of his friends,
and I went along with them, to see the body alone, which we did, which
was a lusty fellow, a seaman, that was hanged for a robbery. I did touch
the dead body with my bare hand: it felt cold, but methought it was
a very unpleasant sight. It seems one Dillon, of a great family, was,
after much endeavours to have saved him, hanged with a silken halter
this Sessions (of his own preparing), not for honour only, but it seems,
it being soft and sleek, it do slip close and kills, that is, strangles
presently: whereas, a stiff one do not come so close together, and so
the party may live the longer before killed. But all the Doctors at
table conclude, that there is no pain at all in hanging, for that it do
stop the circulation of the blood; and so stops all sense and motion in
an instant. Thence we went into a private room, where I perceive they
prepare the bodies, and there were the kidneys, ureters [&c.], upon
which he read to-day, and Dr. Scarborough upon my desire and the
company's did show very clearly the manner of the disease of the stone
and the cutting and all other questions that I could think of... how the
water [comes] into the bladder through the three skins or coats just as
poor Dr. Jolly has heretofore told me. Thence with great satisfaction
to me back to the Company, where I heard good discourse, and so to the
afternoon Lecture upon the heart and lungs, &c., and that being done we
broke up, took leave, and back to the office, we two, Sir W. Batten, who
dined here also, being gone before. Here late, and to Sir W. Batten's
to speak upon some business, wh