- NEWPORT.

CHAPTER III.

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES. GRADU

ATION AT THE MEDICAL SCHOOL.

MASON sailed for Cuba in March, 1828, with his elder brother; and they reached Havana on the 23d of that month. Once on shipboard and beyond the reach of medication and the tactics of maternal fondness, he soon began to revive. Constitutionally he displayed a good reaction, and his naturally sanguine temperament availed him more than a dozen doctors. In his new state of emancipation he could not only eat sugar on his rice, but reject the whole delusion with impunity, and choose the food he liked. Rhubarb and senna vanished with his father's roof-tree; and the sea-air that replaced them proved an admirable tonic, extorting latent drugs from every pore. On reaching his destination he found himself already on the way to recovery; nor did his progress in that direction cease during his stay in the island. April 1, he wrote to his mother:

"We have now been here a week, and are both in much better health than when we left Boston. My health in particular is so much better, and my looks so much improved that I think you would scarcely know me. I have gained considerable flesh, and suffer very slightly from indigestion in comparison to what I did at home. . . I gain more and more daily, and hope that in the course of a fortnight I shall be wholly well."

The young men were received into the house of Mr. William Savage, to whom they had taken letters of intro

duction. They were treated with every possible hospitality, and nothing was left undone to promote the objects of their visit. Under date of April 6, their host informs Dr. Warren that Mason "is in good spirits and exceedingly interesting, and there is nothing that we would not all do for him. . . . They have now been in the island a fortnight, and this morning they drove out to the beautiful coffee estates of Mr. Nathaniel Fellowes, about thirty miles from this city." Dr. Osgood, who was particularly attentive to their wants and devoted to Mason, also writes, April 14:—

“Since his arrival he has gained a great deal in strength and fulness of habit. He has taken no medicine except a few doses of castor oil mixed with hot coffee. We bake the unsifted flour you sent me, and I find it makes very good bread. It is such as the wrestlers used in old times for strengthening the limbs."1

The sons continued their stay in Cuba until the end of April, when they took passage in a small vessel for New York, leaving with infinite regret the tropical luxuriance and bland climate of the West Indies. On Mason's arrival home he was hailed as one from the dead; for his friends, and especially his mother, had scarcely expected to behold him again on this side of the grave, so sad had been his condition when they bade him farewell. They rejoiced in his returning life; and it was matter of thankful congratulation, both to them and to him, that during all this illness his spirits had not lost their accustomed buoyancy, while the serene confidence of youth still faced the future with a trust that saw nothing beyond its powers.

1 This bread was made of unbolted wheat; and Dr. John C. Warren was the first of his profession to set its merits before the world, and insist on its use in a certain class of complaints. In his "Biographical Notes" he thus refers to it: "About the year 1825 I found out the use of bread made of unbolted flour, and introduced it into Boston, though with great difficulty and much ridicule."

As it was desirable that his health should be thoroughly established and not overtasked by too great exertion, Mason spent the next few months in comparative idleness and general recreation. A large part of the summer saw him at Castle Hill, the farm of his grandfather, Governor Collins, near Newport, whither he went with his mother. This was situated on the high and massive uplands, about three miles east of the town, which stand well out in the ocean, towards which they broadly slope in nearly every direction. Nothing could be grander than the view they offer, or more cool and invigorating than the breezes that sweep over them; and, as had been hoped, the reviving air materially aided Mason's progress. In August his mother informed her husband that he was "in fine health, and has gained flesh." "I have been very well since my stay in Newport," wrote Mason, "much better than at any time during the last three years, excepting the cold on my lungs, which I find impossible to get rid of." To this may be added another letter to his father, which shows his moral tone and natural strength of character. It bears date Aug. 21, 1828:

"You mentioned in your last letter to Mamma your fears and a caution to me against gaming and drinking; against these I think that I am secure, having been sufficiently tried during my residence at the Havana among a gaming and licentious set, and where, when sick with nothing to do, having been often tempted to engage in cards and billiards for the sake of some excitement, I have never consented. My playing billiards at Nahant, to which I suppose you refer, was but for a few times, and then only for the sake of exercise and amusement, but never for gaming. I have been often tempted to drink both wine and brandy abroad and at sea, when sick, but have always abstained from them only after dinner and then sparingly, except claret and water, which for the want of good water was necessary.1 . . . In permitting me to be my own master so

1 In this age few can thoroughly appreciate the self-control and independence of character required in Mason Warren's day to abstain entirely from alcoholic

much during this last year, and being so much indulged, I have felt that a great deal of confidence had been reposed in me, and have endeavored that it should not be misused. I hope you will find it not misplaced."

Farther on, in reference to his own disappointed wishes for a college education, he says:

"I hope that Sullivan will fill the place that was intended for me. His talents are very good, and will entitle him to a high standing if improved. There is nothing that will be of more use to him than good composition, which I myself know from experience. I hope that he will be successful next

Monday."

Shortly after his return from Newport, as yet unvisited by the world of fashion, and where "there were not a dozen cottages, and the quaint little town dozed quietly along its bay," another opportunity presented itself of testing that sea cure from which he had already derived such signal benefit. Mr. Horace Gray, a wealthy merchant, was about to sail for Europe in one of his own vessels with Mrs. Gray, an invalid for whose advantage the voyage was to be undertaken at the suggestion of her physician. Having fresh in his mind the result of his Cuban trip, Mason was glad to avail himself of the happy chance thus thrown in his way.' The auspices under which he departed were most promising; but, unluckily, the issue was different from that anticipated. Instead of a long absence on the other shore of the Atlantic, at the end of a month, much to the surprise of his family, he again made his appearance

drinks as a beverage. By nearly all his associates such a course was regarded as a priggish and ridiculous asceticism." He might have been socially tabooed, had it not been for his position and the many manly qualities that entitled him to

esteem.

1 On this occasion, in accordance with a custom that has now fallen into disuse, he obtained a passport from the authorities of his native State, instead of the General Government. It was issued to him as "A Citizen of our Commonwealth, going to Europe," and bears date November 3, 1828, being signed by Governor Lincoln and giving the usual description of his person.

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES.

41

in Park Street, and informed them that so far from improving with the progress of her voyage, Mrs. Gray had grown steadily worse; and her husband, as the only remedy to her acute sufferings, had ordered the ship to be put about in mid-ocean, and headed for home. Though this peremptory change in his plans caused much disappointment to Mason, he gained still further in strength thereby, and the bracing salt breezes apparently completed his cure.

With reviving powers and fresh enthusiasm, Mason now gave himself unreservedly to the vocation he had chosen for his life's work. As to the nature of this vocation he had ever been able to see clearly, and could now have no possible hesitation. In this respect he might certainly be deemed fortunate beyond many of his associates. Not only the circumstances that had influenced him, but his own preferences from the beginning had impelled him in one direction. He was not like his father, who at first hated his professional studies, as he himself declared, and had no peculiar bias for any occupation, but had been urged to surgical pursuits by the stimulus of a good conscience and a stern sense of duty. To his son, on the contrary, it seemed to stand not within the prospect of belief that a Warren should be anything but a surgeon, or could fail to lend his aid towards perpetuating the fame, policy, and traditions of his family. He had imbibed his profession, as it were at the beginning, from the maternal breast, from the very air he breathed, from the silent pressure of a thousand hidden influences, which increased with his years, until he perceived that he centred the hopes of his parents and the prestige of their name. He began his studies under the guidance of his father, who was at that period the most eminent practitioner in New England, a man of iron will, a born autocrat, who ruled the whole professional fraternity with a superb and absolute sway