midnight
Every old woman , from the Townhead to the Townfit , can prescribe a dose of salts , or spread a plaster ; and it is only when a fever or a palsy renders matters serious , that the assistance of the doctor is invoked by his neighbours in the borough . But still the man of science can not complain of inactivity or want of practice . If he does not find patients at his door , he seeks them through a wide circle . Like the ghostly lover of Burger 's Leonora , he mounts at midnight and traverses in darkness , paths which , to those less accustomed to them , seem formidable in daylight , through straits where the slightest aberration would plunge him into a morass , or throw him over a precipice , on to cabins which his horse might ride over without knowing they lay in his way , unless he happened to fall through the roofs . When he arrives at such a stately termination of his journey , where his services are required , either to bring a wretch into the world , or prevent one from leaving it , the scene of misery is often such , that , far from touching the hard-saved shillings which are gratefully offered to him , he bestows his medicines as well as his attendance -- for charity . I have heard the celebrated traveller Mungo Park , who had experienced both courses of life , rather give the preference to travelling as a discoverer in Africa , than to wandering by night and day the wilds of his native land in the capacity of a country medical practitioner . He mentioned having once upon a time rode forty miles , sat up all night , and successfully assisted a woman under influence of the primitive curse , for which his sole remuneration was a roasted potato and a draught of buttermilk .