.
The book "Two Old Men's Tales. The Deformed...", by Marsh-Caldwell,
seems to have come out first in 1834, and it is viewable online via Google
Books.
The story is "supposed to be narrated by a medical practitioner". However,
the setting is England, and "The Deformed" person is noted not for bitter
twists, but for his unusually kind and admirable nature. [So much for the
19th century physician, who (in certain Disability Studies stereotypes) would
inevitably portray disabled people as "bitter and twisted" . Perhaps it's good
for "research", to have an occasional contrary view to break some teeth on.
Or maybe it was a kind-hearted lady novelist, who somehow imagined that
physicians could occasionally break the medical mould?]
"The Deformed" also seems to have been the title of one story in "Tales and
Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry, first published in 1838, by the brothers
Alexander Bethune and John Bethune. Neither was medical -- in fact it
appears that they were ordinary working men, but Alexander was himself
stunted in body and suffered further damage in an accident, and then took to
reading, and writing stories. A review seems to suggest that he portrayed a
character named "Hirplin Hugh" [Scottish 'hirplin' = English 'hobbling'], who
may have been "The Deformed" of one story's title -- but unfortunately the
editions that Google Books got hold of are late, and they do not show even
limited text, let alone whether this deformed or hirpling character was
portrayed as having a gloomy and unpleasant nature.
Between these two shots, you have a story with the right title, the 19th
century, a medical man's report, a Scottish setting, and even a disabled
author. With a literary licence, it should be possible to splice these two
together, stand them a drink, and put a twist of lemon in their bitter.
(Or keep them apart, and reflect that, in real life, there is evidence of a wide
range of social and medical responses to disability and people with
disability, in all times and places...)
miles
*******
On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:49:22 -0400, David P. Dillard
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>These are two items of much older vintage that come up with that title:
>
[snip]
>Title: Two old men's tales
>The deformed, and The admiral's daughter.
>Author(s): Marsh-Caldwell, Anne, 1791-1874.
[snip]
>I hope that this will be of help to you.
>Sincerely,
>David Dillard
>Temple University
[snip]
>
>On Wed, 13 Aug 2008, PAUL SULLIVAN wrote:
>> Hi All, this is a long shot.
>> Does any body know of a book about disabled people called "The
Deformed"? I think it was written in the 19th century, possibly by a Scottish
doctor.
>>
>> I once came across a quote from this book, which said something to the
effect that being "deformed" made people bitter and twisted. It was a good
example of negative attitudes to disabled people and I would like to track it
down for some resourch I am doing to do with disabled people travelling
around independently.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Paul
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