Hysteria

I truly don't even know why I'm here doctor.

Well of course it's difficult running a large household by one self...

and raising four children is exacting. But they're wonderful, wonderful children.

And my husband...

he's a good man. A very hard worker.

And...

Well, there is just... one thing.

Sometimes at night...

and it comes to me.

I imagine myself...

splitting his fat, bold head

with a great large axe.

It's just a feeling that comes over me many... many times a day...

a feeling of...

expectation, aah...

hungering.

How do you bear it, this English weather?

I cannot sing from the sadness.

I open my mouth...

You see? Nothing.

And with my dear Alister, gone these two years now l...

I should have thought I'm far too old for these kind of feelings...

but well, there they are...

Nurse!

I asked you to clean this wound and put on fresh bandages.

Umm...

Dr. Richardson told me

not to waste supplies.

Is he mad? No...

We must keep the wound clean to prevent sepsis.

- What 'sis'? - Sepsis.

Infection. It's caused by germs

entering the wound.

Germs. They're tiny creatures

that invade the body.

Causing pain, fever,

infections.

I don't think I have those.

You can't see them.

They're invisible.

Please, just fetch me a beaker of carbolic acid solution and a fresh bandage.

Yes, doctor.

Honestly...

If that oaf Richardson had his way we'd perform surgery in the sewer

using rusty saws

and it would be Beekman's pills for everybody.

No matter the ailment...

Granville.

I'm aware I specifically told the nurse not to change these bandages.

Soiled bandages are a heaven for germs.

Germ-theory is poppycock, Granville.

Now stop speaking of it. You're frightening the patients.

Poppycock? But Lister has proved it. All the latest journals...

Tripe, Granville.

No, we won't be needing those. Thank you very much.

A study there of calm reassurance

and regular bleeding.

These are the keys to modern medicine.

Will you remain calm, when the leg putrefies and become gangrenous?

When you amputate...

when the rot's spread to her blood and kills her?

I've had quite enough of your impertinence.

Put back that bandage and bleed a pint.

Look... look at her, man. You'd get more blood out of a turnip.

Do as you're told.

And give her Beekman's pills for insurance.

Beekman's pills are rubbish.

They will do nothing but bring on stomach cramps.

I won't stand here and watch you murder your patients

just because you can't be bothered to read the latest science.

Hahahahaha...

At long last

we agree, Granville.

Bloody dinosaur.

Oh...

Huh...

Good day Mrs. Copeland. ls Edmund in?

I wouldn't know, Sir.

Guests at all hours, mad parties, deliveries day and night.

If I didn't love his parents so, I'd never stay.

I'd pack my bags,

and all this electrical equipment.

It's a fire hazard, that's what it is.

I'll try the study.

You. Why have you stopped?

Au!

Now, that is not what you're supposed to do.

Hello.

Ahhh...

Oh no.

You haven't been sacked again, have you?

I tell you Edmund, the healing arts in England are positively lethal.

It's no coincidence that the morgues are placed adjacent to the hospitals.

Ahh...

It is the 1880's.

We're meant to be in the midst of a medical revolution.

Is it asking too much to use just a bit of what science has provided.

Rather than... go about indiscriminately killing people?

I know, if you put it like that.

What's all the fuss outside?

My new generator.

You purchased a generator just last year.

Obsolete. This one is half the size and delivers double the power.

I never thought I'd say this. But...

I've lost hope.

Since I was a boy, all I wanted was to practice medicine.

And to help...

people that actually needed it.

But I'm beginning to fear that the world is set against me.

Well, what you gonna do?

Private practice, I suppose.

I shall harness myself to some greedy pill pusher.

Shut my mouth. And pray that it nets me a steady income.

Or, I could give you ten thousand pounds, and you could whatever you wish.

Uhh... I've told you a thousand times, Edmund.

You and your family have done quite enough for me already.

Oh, come on, Mortimer. I'd hardly miss it.

That's not the point.

I simply must make my own way in the world.

You are so wonderfully middle class.

Haha..

Thank you.

Oh, by the way. There seems to be a young man

sleeping on your stairs.

Really?

Huh...

Good Morning.

Mortimer Granville to see Dr. Dalrymple. I have an appointment.

He's with someone now.

I see. Very well.

I shall wait, then.

Ladies.

Ladies.

Umm...

Ahh...

It's lovely.

Japanese, I think.

You're a charlatan...

with no more idea

of a woman's wants or needs than

of... of the Moon's atmosphere.

Charlotte, I simply want you to behave...

You may be unaware, that there is a social revolution afoot.

Women, will no longer be denied our rightful place.

Try, as you might. To keep us in the kitchen, in the drawing room.

We will not rest.

Until we are welcomed in the universities,

in the professions and in the voting booth.

What are you staring at?

Yes, I can see the wheels turning. Pity I can't stay for the pronouncement.

Charlotte!

That woman was...

Hysterical.

Yes, quite.

It's a very difficult case, that one.

Huh...

I have worked at a number of hospitals in the past...

year.

Guy's of course, Charing Cross.

The Westminster Hospital, most recently...

Excellent.

St Thomas's.

Old St Thomas's.

The Popular & Stepney sick asylum...

Good. Impressive.

...the diseases of the chest. Royal Sea Bathing Infirmary...

Fine... fine.

It's... It's a variety of experiences.

But, tell me doctor...

what do you know of hysteria?

Ah...

Nothing.

Nothing?

But it's a plague of our time.

I would venture to say, that half the women in London are affected.

It stands from an overactive uterus.

In its most severe forms, it demands drastic measures.

Institutionalization, surgery even.

But in it's milder manifestations:

Nymphomania, frigidity, melancholia, anxiety,

it's eminently treatable.

Interesting.

Look, I'll come straight to the point, doctor.

I'm keen for help.

Oh, you saw my waiting room.

Not enough hands to do the work, so to speak.

Sir, I would be enormously grateful

for any position that allowed me to offer relief to my patients

with little chance of killing them.

I've treated thousands of cases, and I've not lost a single patient.

But I won't lie to you, Granville.

It's tedious, tiring work.

Are you fit?

I have never shirked from hard work in the pursuit of helping the most needy among us.

Jolly good.

Shall we say, umm... three pounds a week?

Three pounds?

Four... then. Plus board and lodging.

I accept.

We're going to do great things together, Granville.