of the claw on the handle, and
a Hey's saw, so called in England, lying on the table by him, and painted
there more than a hundred years before Hey was born. This saw is an old
invention, perhaps as old as Hippocrates, and may be seen figured in the
"Armamentarium Chirurgicum" of Scultetus, or in the Works of Ambroise
Pare.

Dr. Clark is said to have received a diploma before he came, for skill in
lithotomy. He loved horses, as a good many doctors do, and left a good
property, as they all ought to do. His grave and noble presence, with
the few facts concerning him, told with more or less traditional
authority, give us the feeling that the people of Newbury, and afterwards
of Boston, had a wise and skilful medical adviser and surgeon in Dr. John
Clark.

The venerable town of Newbury had another physician who was less
fortunate. The following is a court record of 1652:

"This is to certify whom it may concern, that we the subscribers, being
called upon to testify against doctor William Snelling for words by him
uttered, affirm that being in way of merry discourse, a health being
drank to all friends, he answered,

"I'll pledge my friends,
And for my foes
A plague for their heels
And,'----

[a similar malediction on the other extremity of their feet.]

"Since when he hath affirmed that he only intended the proverb used in
the west country, nor do we believe he intended otherwise.

"[Signed] "WILLIAM THOMAS. "THOMAS MILWARD.

"March 12th 1651, All which I acknowledge, and am sorry I did not
expresse my intent, or that I was so weak as to use so foolish a proverb.

"[Signed] "GULIELMUS SNELLING."

Notwithstanding this confession and apology, the record tells us that
"William Snelling in his presentment for cursing is fined ten shillings
and the fees of court."

I will mention one other name among those of the Fathers of the medical
profession in New England. The "apostle" Eliot says, writing in 1647,
"We never had but one anatomy in the country, which Mr. Giles Firman, now
in England, did make and read upon very well."

Giles Firmin, as the name is commonly spelled, practised physic in this
country for a time. He seems to have found it a poor business; for, in a
letter to Governor Winthrop, he says, "I am strongly sett upon to studye
divinitie: my studyes else must be lost, for physick is but a meene
helpe."

Giles Firmin's Lectures on Anatomy were the first scientific teachings of
the New World