"And though they prove not, they confirm the cause,
When what is taught agrees with Nature\'s laws."
Dryden\'s Relig. Laici.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

In endeavouring to give some idea of Abernethy\'s manner in more sustained compositions, we have made some selections from the Lectures he delivered at the College of Surgeons. Without any pretensions to a critically faultless style, there always seemed to us to be a peculiar simplicity, combined with a broad and comprehensive range of thought. Sometimes, too, he has almost a "curiosa felicitas" in the tone of his expressions; though this was more remarkable, we think, when he felt more free; that is, in his unrivalled teaching at the Hospital, of which we shall endeavour to give a more particular account. As we have before remarked, it is impossible to do full justice to Abernethy, unless we were to publish his works, with a running commentary; and we fear that in the selections we offer we have incurred a responsibility which we shall not properly fulfil. To convey the full, the suggestive merit of even some of the following passages, it would be necessary to state carefully the relation they bear to the state of science, both chemical and physiological, at the time they were written, and the present.

The interest of the Lectures is so evenly distributed through the whole, that selection is very difficult; and being obliged to consider our limits, we have, in the absence of a better guide, selected the passages at random, as suggested by our own impressions of them. We therefore can only earnestly recommend the perusal of the Lectures themselves, as equally entertaining and instructive to the general as well as the professional reader. The varied expression and manner, and his fine intellectual countenance, by which he imparted so much interest to his delivery on every subject he touched, will be considered in connection with his success in the art of lecturing, to which these somewhat formal specimens may serve as an introduction.

198

THE APPARENT UNIVERSAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOME POWERFUL
FORCE LIKE ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM, ETC.

"When, therefore, we perceive in the universe at large a cause of rapid and powerful motions of masses of inert matter, may we not naturally conclude that the inert molecules of vegetable and animal matter may be made to move in a similar manner by a similar cause?"

REPUDIATION OF AN OFTEN-ALLEGED OPINION.

"It is not meant that electricity is life. There are strong analogies between electricity and magnetism; and yet I do not know that any one has been hardy enough to assert their absolute identity40. I only mean to prove that Mr. Hunter\'s theory is verifiable, by showing that a subtile substance of a quickly, powerfully mobile nature seems to pervade everything, and appears to be the life of the world; and therefore it is probable that a similar substance pervades organized bodies, and produces similar effects in them.

"The opinions which, in former times, were a justifiable hypothesis, seem to me now to be converted into a rational theory41."

IN RELATION TO MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATION.

"This general and imperfect sketch of the anatomy of the nervous system relates only to what may be discovered by our unassisted sight. If by means of the microscope we endeavour199 to observe the ultimate nervous fibres, persons in general are as much at a loss as when, by the same means, they attempt to trace the ultimate muscular fibres42."

ILLUSTRATION, OF MOTION NOT NECESSARILY IMPLYING SENSATION.

"Assuredly, motion does not necessarily imply sensation; it takes place where no one ever yet imagined there could be sensation. If I put on the table a basin containing a saturated solution of salt, and threw into it a single crystal, the act of crystallization would begin from the point touched, and rapidly and regularly pervade the liquor till it assumed a solid form. Yet I know I should incur your ridicule if I suggested the idea that the stimulus of salt had primarily excited the action, or that its extension was the effect of continuous sympathy. If, also, I threw a spark amongst gunpowder; what would you think, were I to represent the explosion as a struggle resentful of injury, or the noise as the clamorous expression of pain43?"

DIFFERENT NERVOUS SYSTEMS VARIOUSLY AFFECTED BY SIMILAR
IMPRESSIONS.

"Thus the odour of a cat, or the effluvia of mutton, the one imperceptible, the other grateful to the generality of persons, has caused individuals to fall on the ground as though bereaved of life, or to have their whole frame agitated by convulsions. Substances which induce disease in one person or animal, do not induce disease in others44."

200

IMPORTANCE OF OPINIONS.

"Thinking being inevitable, we ought, as I said, to be solicitous to think correctly. Opinions are equally the natural result of thought, and the cause of conduct. If errors of thought terminated in opinions, they would be of less consequence; but a slight deviation from the line of rectitude in thought may lead to a most distant and disastrous aberration from that line in action. I own I cannot readily believe any one who tells me he has formed no opinion on subjects which must have engaged and interested his attention. Persons both of sceptical and credulous characters form opinions, and we have in general some principal opinion, to which we connect the rest, and to which we make them subservient; and this has a great influence on all our conduct. Doubt and uncertainty are so fatiguing to the human mind, by keeping it in continual action, that it will and must rest somewhere; and if so, our inquiry ought to be where it may rest most securely and comfortably to itself, and with most advantage to others.

"In the uncertainty of opinions, wisdom would counsel us to adopt those which have a tendency to produce beneficial actions."

INDEPENDENCE OF MIND ON LIFE AS ARISING OUT OF THE IDEA
THAT LIFE WAS SUPERADDED TO ORGANIZATION—HIS DISPOSITION
TO ALLEGORY.

"If I may be allowed to express myself allegorically with regard to our intellectual operations, I would say that the mind chooses for itself some little spot or district, where it erects a dwelling, which it furnishes and decorates with the various materials it collects. Of many apartments contained in it, there is one to which it is most partial, where it chiefly reposes, and where it sometimes indulges its visionary fancies. At the same201 time, it employs itself in cultivating the surrounding grounds, raising little articles for intellectual traffic with its neighbours, or perhaps some produce worthy to be deposited amongst the general stores of human knowledge. Thus my mind rests at peace in thinking on the subject of life, as it has been taught by Mr. Hunter; and I am visionary enough to imagine that if these opinions should become so established as to be generally admitted by philosophers, that if they once saw reason to believe that life was something of an invisible and active nature superadded to organization, they would then see equal reason to believe that mind might be superadded to life, as life is to structure. They would then, indeed, still further perceive how mind and matter might reciprocally operate on each other by means of an intervening substance. Thus, even, would physiological researches enforce the belief which I say is natural to man: that, in addition to his bodily frame, he possesses a sensitive, intelligent, and independent mind—an opinion which tends in an eminent degree to produce virtuous, honourable, and useful actions45."

ATTRACTIONS OF PhYSIOLOGY—THE NECESSITY OF EXAMINING
BOTH HEALTH AND DISEASE A VERY IMPORTANT POINT JUST
NOW, AS TESTING THE VALIDITY OF CERTAIN VIEWS OF LIEBIG
AND OTHERS.

"No study can surely be so interesting as Physiology. Whilst other sciences carry us abroad in search of objects, in this we are engaged at home, and on concerns highly important to us, in inquiring into the means by which \'we live, and move, and have our being.\' To those, however, engaged in the practice of Medicine, the study of Physiology is indispensable; for it is evident that the nature of the disordered actions of parts or organs can never be understood or judiciously counteracted,202 unless the nature of their healthy actions be previously known.

"The study of Physiology, however, not only requires that we should investigate the nature of the various vital processes carried on in our own bodies, but also that we should compare them with similar processes in all the varieties of living beings; not only that we should consider them in a state of natural and healthy action, but also under all the varying circumstances of disorder and disease. Few indeed have studied Physiology thus extensively, and none in an equal degree with Mr. Hunter. Whoever attentively peruses his writings, must, I think, perceive that he draws his crowds of facts from such different and remote sources, as to make it extremely difficult to assemble and arrange them46."

OF DISORDER AND DISEASE.

"Disorder, which is the effect of faulty actions of nerves, induces disease, which is the consequence of faulty actions of the vessels. There are some who find it difficult to understand how similar swellings or ulcers may form in various parts of the body in consequence of general nervous disorder, and are all curable by appeasing and removing such general disorder. The fact is indisputable. Such persons are not so much surprised that general nervous disorder should produce local effects in the nervous and muscular systems; yet they cannot so well understand how it should locally affect the vascular system. To me there appears nothing wonderful in such events; for the local affection is primarily nervous, and the vascular actions are consequent. Yet it must indeed be granted that there may be other circumstances leading to the peculiarities of local diseases, with which, at present, we are unacquainted. Disorder excites to disease, and when important organs become in a degree diseased,203 they will still perform their functions moderately well, if disorder be relieved, which ought to be the Alpha and Omega of medical attention47."

As we have seen, in the early part of our narrative, he was one of the first to insist on the importance of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, and, as we shall have to relate, most active in securing what has proved so greatly influential to its progress in this country (the appointment of Professor Owen). Yet he modestly ignores any positive pretensions which might be imputed to him from his endeavour to illustrate a Museum dealing so largely with Comparative Anatomy.

"Gratitude to the former of the Museum, and also to the donors to it, equally demand that its value and excellency should be publicly acknowledged and displayed, which consideration has goaded me on to undertake and imperfectly execute a task for which I feel myself not properly qualified."

Here follows what is very candid in Abernethy, and honourable to Mr. Clift, who had very many debtors who were less communicative.

"I cordially acknowledge that I have little acquaintance with the subject, except what I derived from looking over the preparations in the Museum, from reading Professor Cuvier\'s Lectures, and from the frank and friendly communications of our204 highly praiseworthy conservator, Mr. Clift. Permit me to say, gentlemen, though many know it already, that Mr. Clift resided with Mr. Hunter, and was taught by him to exhibit anatomical facts in preparations,—that he does credit to his excellent instructor,—that he feels the same interest and zeal that his patron did for the improvement of this department of science,—and that he possesses the same candour and simplicity of character48."

OF DEEP AND SUPERFICIAL THINKING.

"I now beg leave to add that there are many who think clearly, who do not think deeply; and they have greatly the advantage in expressing themselves, for their thoughts are generally simple and easy of apprehension. Opinions immediately deduced from any series or assemblage of facts may be called primary opinions, and they become types and representatives of the facts from which they are formed, and, like the facts themselves, admit of assortment, comparison, and inference; so that from them we deduce ulterior opinions, till at length, by a kind of intellectual calculation, we obtain some general total, which in like manner becomes the representative and co-efficient of all our knowledge, with relation to the subject examined and considered.

"In proportion to the pains we have taken in this algebraical process of the mind, and our assurance of its correctness, so do we contemplate the conclusion or consummation of our labours with satisfaction49."

CHARACTERISTIC OF HIS INCLINATION TO THE LAW.

"Gentlemen (of the jury), I trust I can prove to your perfect conviction, by ample and incontrovertible evidence, that my205 client (John Hunter) died seized and possessed of very considerable literary property, the hard-earned gainings of great talent and unparalleled industry. It is not, however, for the property that I plead; because already that is secured; it is fenced in; land-marks are set up; it is registered in public documents. I plead only for the restitution of a great and accumulated income of reputation derivable from that property, which, I trust, you will perceive to be justly due, and will consequently award to my client, and his country50."

OF MR. HUNTER—PROGRESS OF HIS MIND, ETC.

"Believing that no man will labour in the strenuous and unremitting manner that Mr. Hunter did, and to the detriment of his own private interest, without some strong incentive; I have supposed that at an early period he conceived those notions of life which were confirmed by his future inquiries and experiments. He began his observations on the incubated egg, in the year 1755, which must either have suggested or corroborated all his opinions with regard to the cause of the vital phenomena. He perceived that, however different in form and faculty, every creature was nevertheless allied to himself, because it was a living being; and therefore he became solicitous to inquire how the vital processes were carried on in all the varieties of animal and even vegetable existence."

OF GENIUS AND JUDGMENT.

"In the progress of science, genius with light and airy steps often far precedes judgment, which proceeds slowly, and either finds or forms a road along which all may proceed with facility206 and security; but the direction of the course of judgment is often suggested, and its actions are excited and accelerated, by the invocations of preceding genius51."

REITERATION OF THE DENIAL THAT HE IDENTIFIED LIFE WITH
ELECTRICITY.

"As Sir H. Davy\'s experiments fully prove that electricity may be superadded to, and that it enters into, the composition of all those substances we call matter, I felt satisfied with the establishment of the philosophy of Mr. Hunter\'s views, nor thought it necessary to proceed further, but merely added: \'It is not meant to be affirmed that electricity is life.\' I only mean to argue in favour of Mr. Hunter\'s theory, by showing that a subtile substance of a quickly and powerfully mobile nature seems to pervade everything, and appears to be the life of the world; and that therefore it is probable a similar substance pervades organized bodies, and is the life of these bodies. I am concerned, yet obliged, to detain you by this recapitulation, because my meaning has been either misunderstood or misrepresented52."

CHEMISTRY OF LIFE.

"He (Mr. Hunter) told us that life was a great chemist, and, even in a seemingly quiescent state, had the power of resisting the operations of external chemical agency, and thereby preventing the decomposition of those bodies in which ............