| Remarks |
This text is a 20th-century hoax;
an indication of its non-authentic character is the very high incidence
of unemphatic affirmative do. According to the Wikipedia entry on
fake memoirs (accessed March 9, 2016), "John Knyveton (actually
Ernest Gray) wrote three medical diaries: The Diary of a Surgeon in the
Year 1751-1752, edited and transcribed by Ernest Gray, New York,
D. Appleton-Century (1938); Surgeon's Mate: the diary of John Knyveton,
surgeon in the British fleet during the Seven Years War 1756-1762,
edited and transcribed by Ernest Gray, London, Robert Hale (1942); and
Man midwife; the further experiences of John Knyveton, M.D., late
surgeon in the British fleet, during the years 1763-1809, edited and
narrated by Ernest Gray, London, Robert Hale (1946). These three diaries
were well received when published, but doubts were later raised about
their authenticity. They are now known to be fictitious, written by
Ernest Gray and loosely based on a short biography of Dr Thomas Denman,
1733-1815." |