The peculiarity of this weapon was that it did not give an electric shock sufficient to kill a man, its effect being merely to paralyse the part it touched, and as the rule was to strike only at the right arm, no greater injury than the paralysis of that limb could take place.
Occasionally it happened that the arm was permanently paralysed; but mostly, only temporarily disabled, for clever electro physicians could commonly restore the limb by cunning administration of counter shocks which occasionally required several weeks, and even months, to effect a thorough cure.
Quack doctors had an evil time of it in these days; if any one took upon himself to publicly prescribe, or vend medicines without having obtained a proper diploma, he was arraigned and condemned to hard labour for a term of years. The employment he was put to usually consisted of the construction of public works, or something strictly useful, and sufficiently profitable to cover the expenses of his detention.
This too, was the reign of the specialist. In every trade, or profession such perfect knowledge was requisite that it was customary to take up but one branch and adhere to it solely.
For instance, a person with a nervous complaint would not dream of consulting a surgeon; the bone-setter never interfered with the fever patient; nor the aurist with the oculist; the child-doctor and accoucheuse kept strictly to her own department, except in rural districts, where there would not have been sufficient employment for each branch of medicine to be represented.
The solicitor never appeared in a police case; for another branch of the profession called ‘petty pleaders,’ conducted these, the study of which possessed its own separate course, and examinations. The food-chemist’s diploma was not identical with that of the ordinary pharmaceutical chemist; indeed, all the various branches of chemistry of which there was a great number, were separately chosen and studied with one definite end in view, everyone keeping to one thing, and doing that perfectly.
The country in which the contest should take place was decided by lot. The question was—India or England. And the lot fell on England. But it was indeed a difficult matter to discover a place sufficiently great in this thickly populated country which would be suitable for this immense tournament. Eventually, a space of sufficient area was fixed upon, which consisted of a number of fields of sweet-smelling flowers that were being cultivated for the manufacture of perfumes; for the wealthy still affected the natural perfume of distilled flowers, to the manufactured odours of the perfume-chemist.
These meadows formed a space of about two hundred acres, and being only a hundred miles from the metropolis proved most convenient for the purpose.
For several weeks previous to the day a large number of carpenters and upholsterers were busily engaged making the necessary preparations.
Tiers of seats to accommodate some thousands of persons were reared all round the field of combat, covered with crimson and gold cloth; while overhead were awnings of glittering silk composed of the finest drawn threads of glass, which shone brilliantly in the summer’s sun. Indeed, robes of silk formed of this material were common enough, for the cocoon of the silkworm was insufficient to meet the demand for this favourite fabric.