A letter from Dr. Leale

[L Verge]

Dr. Mudd probably had the best lawyer of the bunch, but I can't believe that he wasn't scared out of his wits. However, it has always been my impression that the doctor was a rather stoic individual - maybe he knew how to mask his emotions.

We do know that he had a temper, however, as evidenced in the letter that he wrote to an editor of a Catholic newsletter (Brownson?) regarding the problems of society and also several letters that he wrote to his wife from Fort Jefferson where he seems a tad irritated at her for causing him this trouble (or am I reading into that something that really wasn't intentional>)

A question came up years ago when Ed Steers was writing his great book on Mudd: Was taking the Hippocratic Oath part of receiving one's "certification" as a doctor? We always hear supporters say that he was only doing what his Hippocratic Oath required, but had he (or any other doctor of the time) taken that oath?