Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Medical Treatment, Quackery, Patronage, Politics

    Discusses the apparent ability of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies to survive deadly diseases, as well as to recover from an operation conducted by a 'bungling surgeon' and from being blistered by a quack. Considers him to be an ideal patient for Thomas Holloway, if the latter could 'get the ailing tyrant to swallow his pills'. Points out that the king would be as important a patron for Holloway as the late Mason G Stratford (5th Earl of Aldborough).