I will give here the words of Mr. James
Douglas upon this matter. After stating the fact that the story was
in part dictated to my dear friend Dr. Gordon Hake during a stay with
him at Roehampton, he says:--
Dr. Hake is mainly known as the 'parable poet,' but as a fact he was
a physician of extraordinary talent who had practised first at Bury
St. Edmunds and afterwards at Spring Gardens, London, until he partly
retired to be private physician to the late Lady Ripon. After her
death he left practice altogether in order to devote himself to
literature, for which he had very great equipments. As _Aylwin_
touched upon certain subtle nervous phases, it must have been a great
advantage to the author to dictate these portions of the story to so
skilled and experienced a friend. The rare kind of cerebral
exaltation into which Henry Aylwin passed after his appalling
experience in the cove, in which the entire nervous system was
disturbed, was not what is known as brain fever. The record of it in
_Aylwin_ is, I understand, a literal account of a rare and wonderful
case brought under the professional notice of Dr.
Pages:
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813