The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 6)

[Siamese Girl]

I've got to say I love the idea that George Lea was a fraudster. If his estate was only worth £10 at his death he can't have been very convincing as a medical man. Either that or he got through all the money he made. I bet he never even went to America.

How would you have checked in 1871? How many of us have checked our own doctor's qualifications? You don't do you? You just believe what they say.

Carole

[ShaunJ]

I haven't been able to find George Lea in any contemporary medical registers.

There was a police court case in 1876 concerning a Dr John Hamilton of Oxford Street who was charged with unlawfully representing himself as a Doctor of Medicine when his diploma was from the New York Metropolitan Medical College and allegedly of no value in the UK. The case was dismissed because he had represented himself only as a MD of that college and had never represented himself to be registered in the UK under the 1858 Act.

[Siamese Girl]

I haven't been able to find George Lea in any contemporary medical registers.

There was a police court case in 1876 concerning a Dr John Hamilton of Oxford Street who was charged with unlawfully representing himself as a Doctor of Medicine when his diploma was from the New York Metropolitan Medical College and allegedly of no value in the UK. The case was dismissed because he had represented himself only as a MD of that college and had never represented himself to be registered in the UK under the 1858 Act.

 At least it sounds as if he had some kind of a diploma - I don't think George ever did.

Carole

[ShaunJ]

I think diplomas could be obtained easily enough. One of my distant relatives practised as a doctor in Kansas in the 1880's and had his diplomas from Birmingham (England) and Buffalo med schools accepted by the Kansas authorities. The thing is, he is known to have been in Canada at the time he was supposed to be in Birmingham, and the Buffalo college has no record of him.

[Siamese Girl]

Who would check?

I've been looking up english newspaper reports on the New York Medical College and there's a horrific report from 1890 about someone experimenting with  brain grafts - between dogs and then between a dog and a cat, which are absolutely revolting 

Carole

[nestagj]

I think its really sad that Nathaniel kept his diaries for all of his life and then when he died his family got rid ! I know people those days  (and some today) weren't sentimental but they were important enough to him to have kept you would have thought that one of his children would have appreciated that ..................or they were embarassed about his antics 

Nesta

[drykid]

Just in case anyone wants to pursue the Aleck Abrahams line of enquiry then it's worth noting he did put his address occasionally in Notes & Queries.

Amusingly it seems that 51 Rutland Park Mansions (or part of it; might not be the whole thing) is available for viewing currently:

http://homes.voobay.co.uk/homes/flat-park-mansions-london

Maybe someone should pose as a buyer to see what they can find hidden under the floor boards *(semi-) joking*

[deb usa]

Hi everyone

My computer has been infected with a crazy virus ...I am now on my son's computer having lived a day without NB and you all ..... .... My computer now at the Computer MD 

re George studying in the USA .... I think I wrote earlier that I can find absolutely no details of him leaving nor that of Anna Matilda or Minnie Gertrude.

I really would hate to think of him practising medicine without knowing anything about it I think the people in those days had enough to deal with!

deb .... having NB DT's LOL

[Ruskie]

Carole I was very impressed that the NY Medical College replied to you so promptly. 

Very curious that George concocted this story about qualifying in America. Why would he have bothered to do that, rather than just say he qualified somewhere in the UK? Perhaps it was simply because he didn't think he'd be rumbled or checks would be less likely to be made to overseas Colleges?

Another possibility is that he may have attended another American Med School with a similar name?    But finding no record of him travelling to or from America clinches it really ...

Wouldn't there have been some kind of requirement to be a member of some medical organization in England in order for him to practice medicine?

This is my preferred option: Perhaps he was more of a 'potion' maker and seller than an actual medical doctor as we know them. (I'm thinking about some of the claims made by such people mentioned in the TV series The Victorian Pharmacy). Him saying he was an MD on bmd certificates etc was big-noting himself. And saying he had an American qualification may have made him seem pukka - a bit of self promotion and marketing and fibbing perhaps. Something to look good on the leaflets he handed out 

Nesta, re Nat's family getting rid of his diaries - it may have been Nathaniel himself who discarded them?  Or perhaps they were part of a house clearance or deceased estate? 

Ian, thanks for finding Aleck Abraham's address. It would be really interesting to see the house he lived in - and as for looking under the floorboards ... that's not such a bad idea (stranger things have happened). Though it looks like those gorgeous houses would have been gutted and divided into miniscule little flatlets and anything found would have been discarded years ago. I suppose Aleck had the whole house? Very nice. 

Missed you yesterday Deb.