Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners

    A footnote highlights the paradoxical nature of Robert Southey's declaration that 'to gag, bind, and fetter the British press is the surest way to secure its freedom by preventing it from breaking out into acts of extravagance'. It is not disimilar to a physician deciding to 'bleed, blister, purge and sweat a man in perfect health, lest at some future time he might contract a disorder that would confine him to bed'. (232)