Title page of first volume of the third edition of “Passages.”
The Passages — titled Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician when published in book form — came out originally in Blackwood’s Magazine, a popular publication in nineteenth century Britain. The essays were popular enough to warrant three editions of the book version, the third edition coming out in 1832. (Volume II is in the MHL, too!)
The editor’s note in the third edition leaves it a little unclear as to whether the physician of the title was the intentional author of the pieces or whether they were garnered from posthumous papers. The full title of the work and hints dropped in later pages seem to make the latter suggestion the most likely.
The Passages start with the author — deliberately left anonymous on the title page of the book and the editorial note — in London with a medical degree, a young wife, and no immediate employment. After failing to find employment for long enough that taking out a loan on his life insurance policy becomed necessary, the author sets up his medical office.
The essays that follow cover all sorts of topics, from the early frustrations of beginning a medical practice, to social life in London, to a startlingly sympathetic description of an operation for breast cancer which the author attended as a young doctor. The second volume has longer pieces on insanity and deathbed attendance.
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