Adam Smith and *absurd prescriptions* of doctors (continued): three moderate tea cupfuls of blood

Act III: Compiègne and Paris (1766) [Parts I and II are available here, here, and here] Adam Smith’s next first-hand experience with medical quackery occurs during the last part of his travels in France. By way of background, Smith had accompanied Henry Scott, the 3d Duke of Buccleuch (pictured below), who was born in 1746, along with Hew Campbell Scott, the duke’s younger brother (by one year), on their “grand tour” of Europe in the mid-1760s. Smith was travelling in his capacity as their tutor and overseas guardian, and at some point, Smith and his private pupils must have secured an invitation to visit the royal hunting park at Compiègne, France, for that is where Smith and his two pupils found themselves in August of 1766. It was here, in Compiègne, that the young duke became violently ill. Although Smith describes this ailment as a “slight fever” in a lengthy letter (dated 26 August 1766) addressed to the duke’s stepfather, Charles Townshend: “It is, you may believe, with the…