"Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit
Ab Dis plura feret."

We believe that there is no greater fallacy than that which supposes that private advantage can be promoted at the expense of the public good. We are very well disposed to believe that selfish people are the very worst caterers for the real interests of the idol they worship. The more we consider the Hospital system, the more reason shall we find to distrust it; and we by no means exclude that very point wherein it is supposed to be most successful—namely, in securing the pecuniary advantage of those whose interests it is supposed to serve.

Of the apprentices, we shall say little more than to express our belief that many of them have lived to obtain the conviction that they would have done much better had they not been fed by hopes that were never realized. All apprentices cannot, of course, be surgeons. Again, if, in the course of a century, a solitary instance or two should occur of the success of an unapprenticed candidate, they not unnaturally feel it as an injustice in thus being deprived of that, the especial eligibility to which was a plea for the exaction of a large apprentice fee. But to the surgeons themselves, it seems to us that the system is far from realizing the benefits that its manifold evils are supposed to secure. The adage that "curses, like chickens, come home to roost," is far from inapplicable. After all, many of the hospital surgeons are little known; and the public inference with regard to men invested with such splendid opportunities of distinguishing themselves, is not very flattering. Mr. Abernethy, so far297 from benefiting from the "System," appears to us to have suffered from it in every way.

His talents, both natural and acquired, would have given him every thing to hope and nothing to fear from the severest competition; whilst the positive effects of the system were such as to deprive him of what was justly his due, and to embitter a retirement which in the barest justice should have been graced by every thing that could add to his peace, his honour, or his happiness, from the Institution whose character he had exalted and maintained, and whose school he had founded.

But let us look at the facts. The system which pronounces that there shall be three surgeons to attend to some 500 or 600 patients (for the purposes of science—the next thing to an impossibility), kept Abernethy twenty-eight years an assistant surgeon. During this time he was filling the hospital with students, to the amount of sums varying from ￡2,000 to ￡3,000 a year, of which, in the said twenty-eight years, he never received one farthing.

He saw, from time to time, many men, of whose capacities we know he had the highest opinion, shut out from the hospital by the mere circumstance of their not having been apprentices; and two of these were the late Professor Macartney, of Dublin, and the present distinguished Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Professor Owen. And here we must pause to record one of our numerous obligations to the perceptivity and justice of Abernethy. We have formerly observed that, at the very commencement of life, he had been accustomed to inculcate the importance of studying comparative anatomy and physiology, in order to obtain clear views of the functions of Man; but all arrangements made with this view, from the time of Mr. Hunter onwards, though varying in degree, were still inefficient. It was next to an impossibility to combine an availing pursuit of a science which involves an inquiry into the structure and functions of the whole animal kingdom, with the daily exigencies of an anxious profession.

When Mr. Owen had completed his education, his thoughts were directed to a Surgeoncy in the navy, as combining a professional appointment with the possibility of pursuing, with298 increased opportunities of observation, his favorite study. Fortunately for science, he went to Abernethy, who requested him to pause. He said, "You know the Hospital will not have any but apprentices. Macartney left on that account. Stay," said he, "and allow me to think the matter over." This resulted in his proposing to the Council of the College of Surgeons that there should be a permanent Professor of Comparative Anatomy, and that the appointment should be given to Mr. Owen.

This is among the many proofs of Abernethy\'s perception of character. Mr. Owen had dissected for lecture; and Abernethy saw, or thought he saw, a peculiar aptitude for more general and enlarged anatomical investigation. The whole world now knows how nobly the Professor has justified the hopes of his talented master. It would be out of place for us to attempt a compliment to a man so distinguished in a science, wherein the varied pursuits of a practical profession allow us to be mere amateurs; neither do we wish to forget other gentlemen who distinguish themselves in this branch of science; but we believe that most competent judges allow that the celebrated Cuvier has not left any one more fitted to appreciate his excellence, or who has more contributed to extend that science of which the Baron was so distinguished a leader, than Professor Owen.

There is one incident, however, in the Professor\'s labours which, for our own purposes, we must relate; because we shall have to refer to it in our humble exhortation to the public and the profession to believe in the practicability of raising Medicine and Surgery into a definite science. The incident shows what may be done by that mode of investigation which is the still delayed desideratum in medicine and surgery—namely, the most comprehensive record of facts, and the study of their minutest relations. Professor Cuvier was the first to impress, in a special manner, that those beautiful relations in the structure of animals, so many of which are even popularly familiar, extended throughout the animal; so that if any one part, however apparently subordinate, were changed, so accurate were the adaptations in Nature, that all parts underwent some corresponding modification; so that diversity of structure in parts, more or less affected the whole.

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The beautiful result of all this is, that if these relations be once thoroughly mastered, then any one part necessarily suggests, in general terms, the nature of the animal to whom it belonged. Few instances, however, so remarkable as the one we are about to mention, could have been anticipated.

A seafaring man brought a piece of bone, about three or four inches in length, as he said, from New Zealand, and offered it for sale at one or two museums; amongst others, at the College of Surgeons. We shall not here detain the reader by telling all that happened. These things are often brought with intent to deceive, and with false allegations. Most of those to whom the bone was submitted, dismissed it as worthless, or manifested their incredulity. Amongst other guesses, some rather eminent persons jocosely hinted that they had seen bones very like it at the London Tavern; regarding it, in fact, as part of an old marrow-bone, to which it bore, on a superficial view, some resemblance. At length it was brought to Professor Owen, who, having looked at it carefully, thought it right to investigate it more narrowly; and after much consideration, he ventured to pronounce his opinion. This opinion, from almost anybody else, would have been perhaps only laughed at; for, in the first place, he said that the bone (big enough, as we have seen, to suggest that it had belonged to an ox) had belonged to a bird. But before people had had time to recover from their surprise or other sensation created by this announcement, they were greeted by another assertion, yet more startling—namely, that it had been a bird without wings.

Now, we happen to know a good deal of this story; and that the incredulity and doubt with which the opinion was received were too great, for a time, even for the authority of Professor Owen to dispel. But mark the truthfulness of a real science; contemplate the exquisite beauty and accuracy of relation in nature! By and by, a whole skeleton was brought over to this country, when the opinion of the Professor was converted into an established fact. Nor was this all; there was this appropriate symbol to perpetuate the triumph: that which had appeared as the most startling feature of what had been scarcely better received300 than as a wild conjecture, was so accurate in fact, as to form the most appropriate name to the animal thus discovered76.

It would be unjust to others to attribute Professor Owen\'s appointment exclusively to Abernethy: that, the state of things did not place within his single power; but his penetration was the first to suggest, and his weight most potential in securing, an appointment which various circumstances, besides the merits of the individual, bring up in high relief, as the best ever made by the London College of Surgeons.

To return to the Hospital System, as affecting Abernethy. He continued to lecture, and the emoluments arising thence he of course enjoyed. Until 1815, the whole of the hospital fees had been taken by the surgeons in chief. These fees, in twenty-eight years (allowing a reasonable deduction for those pupils who went to the school independently of the inducement offered by the most attractive lecturer ever known), must have amounted to an enormous sum. Having founded the school, he became surgeon at about fifty years of age; and then retired at sixty-two. On retiring, unpleasant discussions arose, which, with others long antecedent, rendered his concluding associations with the hospital scarcely more agreeable than they had been at the College of Surgeons.

The whole of Abernethy\'s closing career gave him no reason to rejoice at the Hospital System. The circumstances, though they convey a lesson in the History of the Lives of Men of Genius, were, abstractedly, extremely unimportant. They show that Abernethy, in his retiring hours, whilst his reputation had become European, and Transatlantic77—whilst hundreds were benefiting their fellow creatures, more or less, according to their talents and301 opportunities, in every part of the world—seems to have been surrounded by men who, so far as we can see, were little disposed to grace his retirement either with much sympathy, or even with reasonably generous appreciation of all that he had done, either for Science in general, or the Hospital in particular.

Instead of considering how they could best do honour to the waning powers of one who had not only raised the reputation of St. Bartholomew\'s Hospital to a point it had never before attained, who had founded a school there, constituting the largest single Hospital Class in London, and who was leaving the inheritance of a rich annual harvest to his successors,—the time was occupied in discussing whether he could resign the surgeoncy without resigning the lectureship; whether, on paying a hundred guineas, which there seemed no difficulty in receiving, he could become a Governor whilst still an officer; and then, whether his being a Lecturer without retaining the surgeoncy did not so constitute him. These, and similar questions scarcely more important, were the source of considerable annoyance.

In former editions, we were obliged to discuss some of these matters more at large than is now necessary; because, amongst the individuals associated in the transactions of the period, there was one to whom Mr. Abernethy had been of especial service; but in regard to whom he had been much misrepresented. Further, this had taken place in our own hearing, in whose recollection all the facts were perfectly fresh, but who were, at that time,302 without the documents which are now in our possession. We accordingly sought to obtain whatever documents there were from the source most likely to test the correctness of our recollection; when a note was written which, as we now learn, quite unintentionally conveyed the idea, or at least was susceptible of the construction, that a disinclination to make any communication on the subject proceeded from a desire to withhold something unfavourable to Mr. Abernethy. This determined us on discussing the matter, so far as was necessary to rebut such interpretation. And it was fortunate we did so; for it very soon appeared, not only that such an impression had been produced, but that "gossip," with its usual aptitude for invention, had soon supplied the myth thus supposed to have been charitably withheld.

It was not very long after the publication of these Memoirs, that we learned, in a conversation with a highly distinguished member of the profession, that he had been led to entertain the impression to which we have alluded. Here we had, of course, an opportunity of correcting the error; but it obviously became a subject of very serious consideration, what must be done in dealing with this matter, and other matters arising out of it, in a subsequent edition. To treat the affair seriously, would have involved a reference to documents in our possession which, though highly honorable to Mr. Abernethy, would have been of no general interest, whilst they would have involved details disagreeable to several persons. We therefore, after much consideration, resolved on endeavouring to see whether it was not possible to quash a tedious and painful discussion, and at the same time to obtain, of course, all that was necessary to the memory of Mr. Abernethy.

The following letter, and the reply, will, we think, sufficiently develop the very difficult and disagreeable position in which we were placed; our sole object being, so far as it was possible, to avoid repeating or enlarging a discussion which we had learned would have given pain to certain parties. The concluding paragraph has been omitted, as being unnecessary to the point more immediately under discussion.

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    "3, The Court Yard, Albany,??
    "July 17th, 1856.

    "Sir,

    "For reasons which may be gathered from this note, I think it proper to inform you that I am preparing another edition of the Memoirs of Abernethy. Impressions have been conveyed to certain persons, that the reasons on which you grounded your disinclination to make any communication in relation to your differences with Abernethy, were the desire you professed to withhold something which involved imputations unfavourable to him. Further, a sort of Body has been given to these vague impressions by inferences which the documentary and other evidence at my disposal enable me to disprove. In one quarter, the circumstances are so strongly suggestive as to the sources whence the erroneous impressions were derived, that it is impossible to leave that portion of the Memoirs which treats of your differences with Abernethy as it at present stands, without the risk of injustice. It is regarded as necessary that you should either recognize or ignore the inferences which (whether correctly or not I will not presume in this place to determine) have certainly been formed on your supposed authority. The justice of such a course is sufficiently obvious. I need scarcely say, it is immaterial to me what course is taken. If I am obliged to enter into the discussion of the subject, I sha............