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British Prisoners Released by Napoleon at Jenner's Request
Corvisart wrote to Jenner in December 1809 telling him that the Emperor had ordered the liberation of MM. Garland and Gold. Clearly the order referring to Garland was mislaid with that referring to Gold.
The prisoner who is of the greatest interest to this Section of the History of Medicine is Mr. Gold. Francis Gold was the son of a Bristol apothecary. He studied at the Bristol Infirmary and in London, becoming a member of the Corporation of Surgeons in 1801. In the same year he went with the Army to Egypt as a hospital-mate and was posted to the 61st Foot (now 2nd Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment) in General Baird's division.
At the Peace of Amiens in 1802 he resigned his commission and he describes how
"After the memorable expedition to Egypt under Sir R. Abercrombie to which I was attached, I obtained permission to return to England by way of the Continent. At the commencement of the present War I happened to be in France and was detained." Actually he arrived in Paris on the evening before the decree was issued for detaining the English in that city. Gold was made a prisoner and was sent for a time to the fortress of Verdun. During the last two years of his nine or nearly ten years' detention he was appointed Surgeon to a depot of Seamen (? captured British sailors) at Saar Louis [18]. Gold was singularly unfortunate in the length of his internment for in 1809, six years after his original detention, Corvisart wrote telling Jenner that Napoleon had ordered his release. Gold was not liberated, however, until 1812, when the order was found, after much inquiry, thrown aside in the office by the negligence of a subordinate Government official. Soon after his return to Bristol Gold fitted up two rooms in the Cathedral Cloisters where he established a school of anatomy. It was in one of these rooms that some vears previously the famous actress, Mrs. Robinson, was born, who afterwards captivated George the Fourth when she was playing the part of Perdita. The present Cathedral pulpit stands very nearly on the spot once occupied by the house.
During his captivity Gold translated one of the earliest and best books of mountaineering in the Pyrenees, Ramond's Travel in the Pyrenees. As a piece of translation this work of Gold's ranks high. He has kept close to the original, preserving admirably the lively and enthusiastic descriptions of' Ramond whose French he has turned into smooth and unmistakable English. This book was published in 1813. He also translated Bichat's Physiological Researches on Life and Death in the following circumstances. Bichat had visited Great Britain and showed his experiments at the Medical Schools of London and Edinburgh. Dr. Kentish, Physician to St. Peter's Hospital in Bristol, was so much impressed by Bichat's work on life and death that he determined to publish it in an English translation and had begun the work.
"But at this period ", Kentish writes, " I became acquainted with Mr. Francis Gold, Surgeon, who had just returned (i.e. end of 1812) from a long confinement in France. I mentioned the circumstance to him, as it accorded with his view, he undertook to translate the work which is now in the press." Having twice applied unsuccessfully for the post of Surgeon to the Bristol Infirmary (in 1812 and 1816) in 1819 Gold relinquished his profession and went to London with the intention of turning painter.
However, by May 31, 1820, he had returned to Bristol and on that date he wrote to his friend Richard Smith - "My dear Smith I have lately been making some stay in London with a view to reconnoitre the land of Art. I find that the land is a bad land and moreover that the grapes thereof are sour: on which twofold account I hav/e resolved to retrace my steps thence as quickly as may be."
But he did not remain in Bristol, for in 1821 he was appointed an Assistant Surgeon by the Hon. East India Company on the Bengal establishment. In a report [18] to the Honble. Court of Directors of the H.E.I.C. John Borthwick Gilchrist, who describes himself as Hindoostanee Professor in London and Director of the Oriental Institution under the patronage of the H.E.I.C., gives details of the progress of the students under his charge. In the list of medical students the rapid progress made by some of them is specially commented on; that of
"Mr. Gold is very remarkable; he not having yet attended above one month of the current course, when he has already reaped a stock of practical knowledge that very few pupils ever attain in double that time."
The India Office records [21] show that after his appointment in 1821 Francis Gold was stationed at Meerut in 1822. In 1825 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon, 31st Native Infantry and in 1826, Assistant Surgeon, 34th Native Infantry. He held this position until his death at Dougah in 1832.
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