Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 19 February 1891
loc_zs.00289.jpg
Medical Superintendent's
Office.
INSANE ASYLUM
LONDON ONTARIO
19 Feb 1891
I have your post card of 16th1
and note what you say re constipation. Do you ever take any Friedrichshall water2
now? I wish you would get some and take a wine glass or more in a tumbler of hot
water first thing in the morning 2 or 3 times a week—I think you would find
benefit from it. Thanks for the papers and especially for the "Personal memoranda"
proof3 which I like well. Here there is nothing but politics, the main quetsion in
the context being: Shall we or not have closer trade relations with the U.S.? It
seems a funny thing to dispute over. It is as if Michican or New York should argue:
Shall we have a protection tariff against the rest of 
loc_zs.00290.jpg the states so as to encourage manufacture
at home (in Mich or N.Y.) and in that way increase the population and prosperity of
the said Mich. or N.Y.? How very singular such a debate would sound and yet it would
be no different from the present one except that here we have a tariff and want to
get rid of it. Then (the funniest thing of all) many of our people dread closer
relations with the U.S. for fear of moral contamination! A sort of—"I thank
thee oh God that I am not like this publican," business. Or as the Scotchman prayed:
"Lord send us a guid conceit of ourselves!"
Two more weeks will settle the fuss for this time—Elections on 5th March.4
Best love to you dear Walt R M BuckeCorrespondent:
Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. See Whitman's postal card to Bucke of February 16, 1891. [back]
- 2. Friedrichshall water is a purgative mineral water from springs located near Heidelberg, Germany. It was one of several mineral waters commonly used in the late nineteenth century to treat constipation. (See C. R. C. Tichborne, The Mineral Waters of Europe [London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox, 1883], Chapter 3, "Chemistry of the Purgative Waters.") [back]
- 3. Whitman published an extensive autobiographical note in the March 1891 issue of Lippincott's Magazine entitled "Some Personal and Old-Age Memoranda." This may be the proof to which Bucke is referring. [back]
- 4. The main issue of the Canadian national election of 1891 was tariffs, with the Conservative Party, led by John A. Macdonald (1815–1891), wanting protective tariffs while the Liberal Party, led by Wilfred Laurier (1841–1919), wanted free trade with the U.S. The Conservatives won the election. [back]