Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 Jl
 
 
 SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, 
 
 BART.
 
 FEINTED BY 8 POTTISWOODI ABB C<X 
 
 JT2W-STUIST SQVABE
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, 
 
 BART. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 1865.
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 THE following Memoir was found among my 
 father's papers. It bears marks of having been 
 primarily intended for the benefit of those 
 most immediately connected with him. Yet it 
 contains so much of special interest to the 
 members of his own profession, and such careful 
 sketches of many persons distinguished in it as 
 to whom he had the fullest means of forming 
 a correct judgment, that it appeared unreason- 
 able to withhold it from publication. There is 
 also much of wider interest in such a record 
 of the career of an eminent professional man. 
 It must be profitable to many to learn how 
 he was educated, and by what genuine work 
 
 1104487
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 he won his way to the rewards which the public 
 bestows. Also, in thus fully tracing his course 
 in life, I cannot but believe that my father had 
 reference to the encouragement and support 
 which his example would afford to any who 
 hereafter should find themselves in the position 
 which he once occupied at the commencement 
 of an arduous and responsible profession, from 
 which they feel tempted to shrink as almost 
 beyond their strength. 
 
 B. C. B. 
 
 OXFOED: March 8, 1865.
 
 May now be had, 
 
 In 3 vols. 8vo. with Medallion and Facsimile, 
 price 48*. 
 
 THE WORKS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, 
 
 BART. D.C.L. 
 
 PBBSIDENT OF THE BOYAL SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 WITH AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 COLLECTED AND ABBANGED BY 
 
 CHARLES HAWKINS, 
 
 FELLOW OP THE KOYAL COLLEGE OP SUKGEONS 
 OP ENGLAND.
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, 
 
 BART. 
 
 I KNOW but little of my father's family. My 
 paternal grandfather was, I believe, born in 
 Banffshire, somewhere about the year 1710 or 
 1711. He came to London a very humble 
 adventurer, having, as there was reason to be- 
 lieve, been involved (in those days of Jacobi- 
 tism) in some political trouble. He married 
 a daughter of Dr. Peter Shaw, a physician, and 
 first cousin of another Dr. Shaw, who was au 
 eminent medical practitioner, and whose daugh- 
 ter married the first Dr. Warren. Dr. Peter 
 Shaw had followed the fortunes of the Stuarts, 
 and, if I am not mistaken, had accompanied 
 King James II. abroad. My grandfather is 
 

 
 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 described by Dr. Denman, who married one of 
 his daughters, as an army clothier ; but he also 
 had some post in the Stamp Office, which fact 
 I have learned from some letters which I have 
 in my possession of my father's to his sisters, 
 addressed under cover to my grandfather to 
 save the postage. 
 
 My father scarcely ever spoke of his own 
 family, and what little I know of them is 
 chiefly derived from my unmarried aunt, Mar- 
 garet Brodie. The supposition that my grand- 
 father had become involved in some political 
 difficulties is rather confirmed by the circum- 
 stance of his having married afterwards the 
 daughter of a staunch Jacobite, and by the Jaco- 
 bite songs which my before-mentioned aunt was 
 accustomed to repeat to us when I was a child. 
 The only relations with whom he kept up any 
 communication were a naval Captain, I believe 
 afterwards Admiral, Brodie, who, as my aunt 
 used to report to us, had two very handsome 
 sons, and Mr. Brodie, of Brodie, who held the 
 office of Lord Lyon. From his connection with 
 the latter, I conclude that we are of the family
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BHODIE, BART. 3 
 
 of Brodie of Brodie. Of his own immediate 
 family I know nothing, except that after his 
 death two of his nephews came to London, ap- 
 parently knowing nothing about him, on the 
 speculation that there might be something for 
 them to inherit, departing, however, at once on 
 finding that he had left a family, and that there 
 was nothing for them : being never heard of 
 afterwards. 
 
 My paternal grandmother had the reputation 
 of being a person of very considerable abilities, 
 and I have formerly seen some of her manu- 
 scripts which seemed to prove that this was 
 really the case. My aunt used to boast that we 
 had somehow royal blood in our veins (that of 
 the Plantagenets), an honour which my friend 
 Charles Edward Long has shown to be shared 
 by many thousand persons of various grades, 
 from princes and dukes down to cobblers and 
 carpenters. 
 
 My father was educated on the foundation at 
 the Charterhouse, and afterwards at Worcester 
 College, Oxford. As a boy he was patronized 
 by the first Lord Holland, and passed much of 
 
 B 2
 
 4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 his time at Holland House. On leaving the 
 University he took holy orders, and it seems 
 from some letters of his which I have in my 
 possession, that at one period he held a curacy 
 at Adderbury, in Oxfordshire. He remained 
 there, however, only for a short time, and when 
 Stephen the second Lord Holland purchased an 
 estate and mansion at Winterslow in Wiltshire 
 of one of the Thistlethwayte family, he rented 
 a cottage in the same place in order that lie 
 might be near him. From his letters to his 
 sisters written at this period, it appears that he 
 lived almost constantly with Lord Holland, to 
 whom, as well as his brother Charles James Fox, 
 he was sincerely attached, always speaking of 
 them (especially of the former) even to the last 
 days of his life with the greatest affection. 
 
 Lord Hollund died in 1774, having directed 
 in his will that my father should have offered to 
 him the presentation of the first of three livings 
 which he had in his gift which should become 
 vacant. The vacancy soon occurred in conse- 
 quence of the death of the Rev. Dr. Thistle- 
 thwayte, the incumbent of Winterslow, and thus
 
 SIR BENJAMIN' BRODIE, BAKT. O 
 
 my father became the rector of the parish in 
 which he had previously resided. 
 
 In the year 1775 my father married one of 
 the daughters of Mr. Collins, of Milford, a banker 
 at Salisbury. They had six children, four sons 
 and two daughters, and I was their fourth child, 
 having been born in the year 1783. 
 
 My earliest recollections carry me back to the 
 Rectory at "Winterslow. They are still as vivid 
 as ever, and even now my dreams continually 
 present to me these scenes of my early life. 
 
 My father was altogether remarkable for his 
 talents and acquirements. He was well ac- 
 quainted with general literature, and was an ex- 
 cellent Latin and Greek scholar for the period in 
 which he lived, when a critical knowledge of the 
 Greek language was not so far advanced as it is 
 at the present time. He was endowed with a 
 large share of energy and activity ; but looking 
 back at this early period of my life, I cannot 
 doubt that he was a disappointed person. In 
 the beginning of his career he had reason to ex- 
 pect that he would rise high in his profession ; 
 and there is little doubt that his expectations
 
 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 would have been realized if Mr. Fox had con- 
 tinued longer in power. As it was, his first pre- 
 ferment was his last. He paid great attention to 
 the duties of his parish, and knew every one of 
 the seven hundred or eight hundred individuals 
 belonging to it. But besides this he attended 
 more than any one of the neighbouring gentry 
 to the public business of our part of Wilt- 
 shire, as a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant, 
 and in other ways. Thus he acquired a con- 
 siderable local influence beyond that which with 
 his moderate fortune he would have acquired 
 otherwise. 
 
 He held what is commonly called a very good 
 living; and my mother, not many years after 
 her marriage, inherited a fortune of KXOOO/. as 
 her share of her father's fortune ; to which ulti- 
 mately there was an addition of some thousands 
 of pounds from other parts of her family. My 
 father was very anxious that his sons should be 
 well educated. But with his means he found 
 that he could not afford to send us all to public 
 schools ; and as he did not like to send us to 
 schools of an inferior order, he determined, in
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 7 
 
 addition to his other undertakings, to instruct 
 us himself. For many years this was indeed 
 the principal object of his life, and I cannot too 
 strongly express my gratitude for the thought 
 and labour which he bestowed on the cultivation 
 of our minds. 
 
 My elder sister, who afterwards married the 
 Rev. Mr. Marsh, chancellor of the diocese of 
 Salisbury, was educated with her brothers. She 
 was well acquainted with Greek and Latin, and 
 afterwards instructed her own children in those 
 languages previously to their being sent to West- 
 minster School. Being seven years my senior, 
 she took some part in the instruction of myself 
 also. When I was seven years old, my father 
 being for a time absent from home, she super- 
 intended my first translations of Ovid, and some 
 six years afterwards I went through Euclid's 
 Elements with her assistance. 
 
 Our life at Winterslow was removed as far as 
 possible from one of idleness. In the summer 
 my brothers and myself rose at six o'clock, and 
 two hours were devoted to study (generally learn- 
 ing to repeat Greek and Latin poetry, or Cicero's
 
 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 Orations) before we breakfasted at half-past eight 
 o' clock. Immediately after breakfast we resumed 
 our studies ; we dined at three o'clock, and were 
 then at our studies again from four to six o'clock. 
 In the winter our hours of study were somewhat 
 different and from eight to half-past nine o'clock 
 in the evening my father read some book of 
 amusement or instruction aloud to the whole 
 family. On two days in the week when my 
 father was absent on public business, we had 
 half-holiday?. We had no other vacations 
 during the whole year, except on some grand 
 occasions, such as a cricket match, or the first 
 few days of the skating season. On the whole, 
 our average time of study was from seven to 
 eight hours daily ; and there having been only 
 very rare intermissions, the result has been that 
 the habit of being employed in some kind of 
 study became a part and parcel of my nature. 
 Idleness even for a single day has been al- 
 ways irksome to me, and I have had little in- 
 clination for any pursuit which did not seem to 
 lead to some ulterior object. Much of my suc- 
 cess in my worldly career is, I am convinced,
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BKODIE, BART. 9 
 
 to be attributed to this discipline in my early 
 years. 
 
 Being a large family we had a society among 
 ourselves ; and only a very limited acquaintance 
 with the families in the neighbourhood. Indeed 
 there were but few for us to visit. The nearest 
 place at which we could have any acquaintance 
 was Salisbury, and this was by the carriage road 
 seven miles distant. Some of our cousins, how- 
 ever, used to come at times to stay with us for 
 a few weeks. Among them were the present 
 Lord Denman, the present Sir George Staunton, 
 Colonel Squire of the Royal Engineers, who 
 afterwards died in the Peninsula, and his two 
 brothers. Lord Denman resided with us as a pupil 
 of my father's for a year after leaving Eton. Re- 
 ferring to him at this period, I cannot but re- 
 cognise in him the same character which he has 
 preserved through life. He was a thoroughly 
 good boy, upright and honourable as he has 
 been ever since. As we grew older we formed 
 other acquaintance, and I may mention speci- 
 ally Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Maton, who after- 
 wards became a physician of great eminence in
 
 10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 the metropolis ; Mr. (now Sir John) Stoddart, 
 who for many years filled the office of chief jus- 
 tice at Malta ; and the late Mr. Wray, of the 
 Chancery bar. These were ever afterwards my 
 most intimate friends. At the present time the 
 only one of these who remains among us is Sir 
 John Stoddart, still retaining an active and vi- 
 gorous intellect, and engaged in literary pursuits 
 at nearly eighty years of age. 
 
 There were undoubtedly disadvantages belong- 
 ing to the kind of life which my brothers and 
 myself led at this period, having so little ac- 
 quaintance with those of our own age and sta- 
 tion. We had much to learn when we came 
 into the world which others learn as boys at 
 Eton or Harrow or Rugby. In my own case, 
 one was a shyness in general society, which for 
 a long time was very oppressive, and which it 
 took many years for me to overcome ; and an- 
 other was that, not having sufficient opportuni- 
 ties of comparing myself with others, I formed 
 no right estimate of my own character, over- 
 rating myself in some things, and underrating 
 myself in others. Yet I am inclined to think
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BKODIE, BART. 11 
 
 that what we gained in some respects was fully 
 equal to what we lost in others. In my solitary 
 walks through Lord Holland's woods, or over 
 the "Wiltshire downs, I early acquired the habit 
 of reflection, and of thinking and judging for my- 
 self, and the consequence has been that througli 
 the whole of the after part of my life I have 
 never been inclined to adopt opinions on the 
 authority of others, nor until . I had looked at 
 both sides of the question. I also learned to 
 be independent of others for occupation and 
 amusement, and of this I have felt the great 
 advantage ever since. In the many years pre- 
 vious to my marriage, during which I was climb- 
 ing up-hill in my profession, when I passed what 
 is called the empty season in London, with very 
 few of my acquaintance left in the great city, 
 time never hung heavily on my hands. In- 
 deed very few portions of my life have been 
 much happier than those in which I had no 
 other society than that of my books and writings, 
 and little recreation beyond that of a solitary 
 walk in the evening in the fields which now 
 form the Regent's Park, or those which are now
 
 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 covered with houses and gardens in ths district 
 of St. John's Wood. 
 
 Notwithstanding what I have said as to our want 
 of society at Winterslow, we were not altogether 
 without opportunities of studying the characters 
 of others, and of learning how to deal with man- 
 kind. Education and position in society modify 
 our tastes and sentiments and habits, but they 
 do not alter the essential qualities of human na- 
 ture, the observation of which in one class of 
 persons cannot fail to teach us much of what 
 we want to know as to others. In the year 
 1 798, when there was an alarm on account of a 
 supposed probability of invasion by the French, 
 my elder brothers and myself raised a company 
 of volunteers, amounting at last to as many as 
 140 in number. The eldest of us was only 
 nineteen years of age, and I myself was not 
 more than fourteen, when, through my father's 
 influence, we received our commissions as cap- 
 tain, lieutenant, and ensign. The men were 
 clothed and armed by Government, and received 
 pay for each day of exercise. We expended the 
 pay which we received as officers in one way or
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 13 
 
 another on the corps, principally in giving them 
 entertainments in my father's great barn, after 
 being inspected by the general officer of the 
 district (or on some other occasions), to which 
 we invited some of our friends in the neigh- 
 bourhood and the farmers of our parish. I 
 have no doubt that the pay and the dinners did 
 much for us ; still, as we were nothing bat vo- 
 lunteers in the true sense of the word, and as 
 each one of our soldiers could go and come as 
 he pleased, if we had not attended to their feel- 
 ings, and thus exercised an influence over them , 
 we could never have maintained among them the 
 necessary discipline, nor have kept up the number 
 of our corps. I cannot look back at these boyish 
 occupations without being satisfied that they af- 
 forded me many useful lessons by which I pro- 
 fited in the world afterwards. I may add that 
 we bestowed great pains on the drilling of our 
 corps ; and, by diligently studying the system 
 of tactics published by authority, we succeeded 
 in obtaining for it the credit of being by far 
 the best disciplined of any in our part of the 
 country.
 
 14< AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 In the year 1799 my elder brother, Peter, left 
 Winterslow to be entered at the Temple and 
 reside as a law-student in London. My next 
 brother, William, was at this time residing at 
 Salisbury, it being intended that he should be 
 brought up to the woollen cloth manufactory, 
 for which Salisbury had in those times a repu- 
 tation, which it has long since lost. In the 
 latter part of the year 1801 I followed my elder 
 brother to London. This interval of two years 
 from 1799 to 1801 was a very important portion 
 of my life. I was old enough to know that I 
 must depend on myself for making my way in 
 the world, and that I might never again have 
 the same opportunity of laying in a store of 
 general knowledge. I read a great deal of Greek 
 and Latin, and still more in other subjects. In 
 mathematics I never soared higher than geo- 
 metry and algebra, but of these I learned enough 
 to obtain a sufficient knowledge of mechanics, 
 optics, and hydrostatics for ordinary purposes, 
 and a general knowledge of astronomy. In 
 general literature my reading was very various, 
 including many books which might as well have
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 15 
 
 been left to a later period : such as Locke's 'Es- 
 say on the Understanding ;' Harris's ' Philoso- 
 phical Essays ;' Reid's 'Inquiry;' Priestley's 
 ' Abridgment of Hartley's Theory ; ' Godwin's 
 ' Political Justice; ' Smith's ' Theory of the 
 Moral Sentiments;' &c. I also acquired some 
 knowledge of chemistry. I knew Lavoisier's 
 ' Elements ' by heart, and fitted up a laboratory 
 with such simple apparatus as with my very li- 
 mited means I was able to make or purchase. I 
 read a great deal of English poetry, and some 
 French and Italian. What I had then committed 
 to memory of Greek and Latin and English 
 poets has been a great resource to me since, 
 during the many long nights which I travelled 
 by myself in a postchaise, before the invention 
 of railways. But I cannot say that my poetical 
 taste at that time was of the purest kind. I was 
 a vast admirer of Darwin, and never properly 
 appreciated Shakespeare until I had lived for 
 some few years in the world. Looking back at 
 these two years, the impression on my mind is 
 that it would have been well if I had read less 
 and digested more ; nevertheless I am satisfied
 
 16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 that they have been to me of the greatest value, 
 and that if they could have been blotted out of 
 my existence, my position in society would at 
 the present time have been very different from 
 what it really is. 
 
 My two elder brothers being away, and my 
 third brother being several years younger than 
 myself, the result was that during the two years 
 of which I have just spoken, I was thrown more 
 into the society of my father than at any former 
 period. He had been a very strict disciplinarian, 
 and the respect and affection which I had for him 
 had been mixed up with no small portion of fear. 
 But it was now much otherwise. I became to 
 a considerable extent his companion. In the 
 early part of the day I read with him some Latin 
 and Greek works generally the latter. In the 
 afternoon and evening he left me very much to 
 pursue my studies in my own way. Between 
 our morning occupations and dinner-time, when 
 I was not engaged in some business relating to 
 our volunteer corps, and he was not engaged by 
 his duties as a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant, 
 which at this time were considerable, I accom-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 17 
 
 panied him in his walks. Allowing for the dif- 
 ference of more than forty years in our ages, 
 our tastes were a good deal similar, so that my 
 attentions were not paid to him merely as a 
 matter of duty. My father, as I have already 
 mentioned, was a man of great natural talent, 
 and had a very cultivated mind ; and the fact of 
 my being much in his society made me feel as 
 if I was an older person than I really was, and 
 in part explains how it happens that, when I went 
 forth into the world afterwards, my sympathies 
 were much more with those who were beyond 
 myself in years than with those of my own age. 
 Other circumstances, however, contributed to 
 produce the same result. I have already referred 
 to Robert TVray as one of my early acquaintance. 
 He was the son of a gentleman of independent 
 fortune at Salisbury, about five years my senior, 
 and of a very thoughtful and reflecting turn cf 
 mind. There was a close intimacy between us, 
 which terminated only with his death. Thus, 
 being thrown a good deal on my own resources, 
 I was constrained to seek amusement for my 
 leisure hours, not in the usual pursuit of boys, 
 c
 
 18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 but in my father's library, picking up many 
 scraps of knowledge, which I have found to be 
 far from useless since. To those who may take 
 the trouble of looking at these manuscripts here- 
 after, all this may appear very trifling and ego- 
 tistical ; but the truth is, that I feel an interest 
 in looking back at these circumstances in my 
 early life which had an influence on my tastes 
 and habits afterwards ; and it may be that some- 
 thing of the same kind of interest will be felt 
 by my wife and children when I am taken from 
 them. 
 
 As long as I can remember any thing, my father 
 always endeavoured to impress on our minds 
 that we should have to obtain our livelihood by 
 our own exertions ; that he would do his utmost 
 to give us a good education, to accustom us to 
 industrious habits, and to put us in the way of 
 providing for ourselves, but that he could do 
 nothing more. We supposed that he left us to 
 choose our professions for ourselves, but the fact 
 was, as I now believe, that, without our being 
 aware of it, he himself directed our inclinations.
 
 SIR BEXJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 19 
 
 My elder brother became a lawyer, and has since 
 obtained the highest place in his profession as a 
 conveyancing barrister, distinguished alike for 
 his legal knowledge, his integrity, and his accu- 
 racy. My next brother, three years older than 
 myself, as I have already mentioned, was first 
 engaged in the woollen cloth manufactory at 
 Salisbury. This, however, soon became a fail- 
 ing business, the Salisbury manufacturer, after 
 the introduction of steam, being unable to com- 
 pete with those of the coal districts. Some years 
 afterwards, however, he succeeded on the death 
 of one of my maternal uncles to a very lucrative 
 business, which had been for some generations 
 in my mother's family, and by which my grand- 
 father had been enabled to accumulate a consi- 
 derable fortune, became the proprietor of a pro- 
 vincial newspaper, and a banker. He married 
 a niece of Mr. Hussey, who represented Salis- 
 bury in Parliament, with a good fortune ; and 
 was for many years a most prosperous person, 
 living in the best society of that part of the 
 country. In an evil hour he was persuaded to 
 
 aspire to a seat in the House of Commons. He 
 C 2
 
 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 was elected for Salisbury by a large majority ; 
 was re-elected after two pretty hard contests ; 
 and kept his seat until, after the sudden death 
 of a managing clerk in whom he had placed a 
 too unlimited confidence, he was led to accept 
 the Chiltern Hundreds. 
 
 As to myself, it was determined that I should 
 embark in some part of the medical profession. 
 Dr. Denman had married one of my father's 
 sisters. Dr. Baillie and Sir Richard Croft had 
 married my first cousins. The great reputation 
 which they had respectively acquired perhaps 
 led my father to give my mind this direction, 
 and disposed me to be easily guided according 
 to his wishes. However that may have been, 
 in the autumn of 1801 I was sent to London, 
 and there entered on those pursuits which have 
 been the chief object of my life. 
 
 Others have often said to me that they sup- 
 posed that I must have had, from the first, 
 a particular taste or liking for my profession. 
 But it was no such thing ; nor does my experi- 
 ence lead me to have any faith in those special 
 calliugs to certain ways of life which some
 
 SIR .BENJAMIN BROD1E, BART. 21 
 
 young men are supposed to have. For the 
 most part, these are mere fancies, which are 
 liable to give way to other fancies with as little 
 reason as they themselves first began to exist. 
 Such persons take the ignotum pro magnifico ; 
 and when they find that the magnificum is not 
 equal to their expectations, they as readily fly 
 to something else. The persons who succeed 
 best in professions are those who, having (per- 
 haps from some accidental circumstance) been led 
 to embark in them, persevere in their course as 
 a matter of duty, or because they have nothing 
 better to do. They often feel their new pursuit 
 to be unattractive enough in the beginning ; but 
 as tliey go on, and acquire knowledge, and find 
 that they obtain some degree of credit, the case 
 is altered ; and from that time, they become 
 every day more interested in what they are 
 about. There js no profession to which these 
 observations are more applicable than they are 
 to the medical. The early studies are, in some 
 respects, disagreeable to all, and to many repul- 
 sive. But in the practical exercise of its duties 
 in the hospital, there is much that is of the
 
 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 highest interest ; and the collateral sciences, to 
 those whose position gives them the opportunity 
 of cultivating them, offer at least as much to 
 gratify our curiosity and excite our admiration 
 as any other branches of knowledge, not even 
 excepting the sublime investigations of astro- 
 nomy. 
 
 When I first came as an adventurer to Lon- 
 don, I knew as little as possible of the profession 
 for which I was destined, and I had to grope 
 my way in it as well as I could by myself. I 
 soon found that I could not be a physician with- 
 out a University degree. My father had sent 
 none of us to Oxford or Cambridge. I do not 
 certainly know why he did not do so ; for al- 
 though, with his family of six children, his 
 pecuniary means were limited, we were far be- 
 yond ordinary schoolboys in our knowledge of 
 Greek and Latin ; and I have known many much 
 inferior to ourselves, as to these studies, who 
 were able to obtain exhibitions such as, with 
 what he could have done for us, would have 
 enabled us to obtain an academical education, 
 and put us in the way of rising in the Uni-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BHODIE, BART. 23 
 
 versity afterwards. I suspect that for these 
 ancient seats of learning, as they were then 
 constituted, he had no very great respect, and 
 that he feared that we might there lose those 
 habits of persevering industry which he had 
 been at so great pains to give us. 
 
 During my first season in London, I attended 
 Mr. Abernethy's lectures on Anatomy. He 
 was an admirable teacher. He kept up our 
 attention so that it never flagged, and that what 
 he told us could not be forgotten. He did not 
 tell us so much as some other lecturers; but 
 what he did, he told us well. His lectures 
 were full of original thought, of luminous 
 and almost poetical illustrations, the tedious 
 details of descriptive anatomy being occasion- 
 ally relieved by appropriate and amusing anec- 
 dotes, which, though they had been repeated 
 over and over again, as one course succeeded 
 another, were very agreeable to us new-comers. 
 Like most of his pupils, I was led to look up to 
 him as a being of a superior order, and I could 
 conceive nothing better than to follow in his 
 footsteps; and thus I was led to regard the
 
 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 department of the profession to which he be- 
 longed as that to which I should belong myself. 
 Of this conclusion I have never since had reason 
 to repent ; and after an experience of fifty years, 
 I am confirmed in the opinion that the pursuit 
 of what is called pure surgery, such as it is in 
 large cities, in connection with a hospital and 
 a medical school, is more replete with interest, 
 and, on the whole, more satisfactory, than any 
 of the other branches into which the ars me- 
 dendi is divided. 
 
 Although I never even dreamed of retracing 
 my steps, nor allowed myself to think that I 
 could venture to do so, it must be confessed that 
 there was much which tended to damp my ar- 
 dour in the beginning. A very few days were 
 sufficient to overcome the disgust occasioned 
 by my first entry into the dissecting-room ; but 
 the study of bones and muscles and bloodvessels 
 was far from being attractive in the first in- 
 stance, after the very different studies in which 
 I had been previously engaged. Now, in the 
 theatre and the dissecting-room, I felt, though 
 with numbers around me, like a solitary person.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 25 
 
 Between myself and the great majority of the 
 students there was nothing in common. In a 
 medical school, indeed, there is a great mixture 
 of persons. There is always a certain number 
 of well-educated young men. But these are a 
 minority. The effect of the absurd system of 
 apprenticeship to an apothecary which custom 
 formerly, and since that an Act of Parliament, 
 has imposed on what are called general prac- 
 titioners is that the great mass of students 
 are sadly deficient in this respect. If I spoke 
 on subjects in which I was interested, they did 
 not understand me, neither did I understand 
 them. There were only two among them with 
 whom I had much acquaintance : one of them 
 a young physician of the name of Crawford, 
 a nephew of Crawford who wrote on animal 
 heat, and who died not very long afterwards; 
 and the other was Lawrence, who has since 
 acquired so large and well-deserved a reputa- 
 tion. The latter was, even then, a remarkable 
 person. I never knew any one who had a 
 greater capacity for learning than he had, nor 
 more industry, nor who at the same age had
 
 26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 a greater amount of information, not merely on 
 matters relating to his future profession, but on 
 a great variety of other subjects. 
 
 From that time to the present, Lawrence and 
 myself have been moving in parallel lines, he 
 having had the largest share of private practice 
 next to myself; and it may be regarded as 
 somewhat to the credit of both of us that there 
 has never been any manifestation of jealousy 
 between us. I have already mentioned that, 
 when a young man, he had some faculties in 
 great perfection, and he has them still, but 
 little (as far as I can see) impaired by the addi- 
 tion of fifty years to his age. He has a great 
 memory, and can readily recur to, and make 
 use of, what he knows. He has considerable 
 powers of conversation, but without obtruding 
 himself to the exclusion of others, as is the 
 case with too many of those who are reputed to 
 be good talkers. What he says is full of happy 
 illustrations, with, at times, a good deal of not 
 ill-natured sarcasm. In public speaking, he is 
 collected, has great command of language, and 
 uses it correctly, but not equal to what he is in
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 27 
 
 the ordinary intercourse of society. In writing, 
 his style is pure, free from all affectation, yet 
 in general not sufficiently concise. His read- 
 ing has been extensive ; he is well acquainted 
 with modern, and moderately so with the an- 
 cient, languages. His professional writings con- 
 tain a vast deal of information, but it is more 
 as to what he has taken from other authors than 
 as to the results of his own experience and 
 observation. That he is thoroughly acquainted 
 with his profession cannot be doubted, for it 
 would not have been possible for him otherwise 
 to retain for so long a period the high place 
 which he has occupied. 
 
 If I had but few associates among my fellow- 
 students in the medical school, I was fortunate 
 in those whom I had at the same time out of it. 
 
 My elder brother was in London studying fot 
 the Bar, and he and I lodged together at a house 
 in Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn. Denman, my 
 first cousin, was studying the law also, and had 
 chambers in Lincoln's Inn. Merivale, with whom 
 I was acquainted as a friend of Denman, and as 
 having been a visitor at my father's house in
 
 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 Wiltshire, and who was afterwards well known 
 for his literary acquirements, and especially as 
 the author of the translations of the Greek An- 
 thology, was engaged in the same pursuit, and 
 residing also in Lincoln's Inn. Besides these, 
 I was on intimate terms with other law students, 
 among them Wray, with whom I had previously 
 associated in Wiltshire ; Stoddart, already men- 
 tioned as a former friend, who, after having been 
 leading the life of a literary man, was then study- 
 ing for the Bar of Doctors' Commons ; Gifford 
 (Lord Gifford afterwards), and one whose name 
 was Barwis, who, not being very successful at 
 the Bar, became afterwards the Marquis of Or- 
 monde's agent in Ireland, and continued to be 
 one of my best and kindest friends to the end of 
 his days. To these I may add Dr. Maton, whom 
 I had known in my earlier days, and whom, while 
 I was a boy, I had sometimes accompanied in 
 his botanical excursions. He had then lately 
 begun to practise as a physician in London ; 
 rising afterwards to be one of the principal phy- 
 sicians in the west end of the town. All of 
 these whom I have mentioned were several years
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 29 
 
 older than myself, and I hold it to be one of the 
 greatest advantages which I have had in life, 
 that I was thus at an early age thrown into the 
 society of intelligent and well-conducted per- 
 sons, whose minds were more matured than my 
 own. 
 
 Dr. Maton and some of his friends, while at 
 Oxford, had formed themselves into a society 
 for the discussion of literary and other subjects. 
 The objects of the society were innocent enough, 
 and one of their rules was to exclude all ques- 
 tions connected with religion and politics. But 
 in those days, when the French Revolution was 
 going on, and parties were reckless and violent 
 at home, it excited the jealousy of the authori- 
 ties of the University, who insisted on it being 
 put an end to. "When several of the founders 
 of it met afterwards in London, they agreed to 
 re-establish it under the name of the Academical 
 Society, and it accordingly assembled once in a 
 week at apartments at a large house in Bell 
 Yard, between Lincoln's Inn and the Temple. 
 Dr. Maton was its president, and through his 
 kindness, youngster as I was, I was elected a
 
 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 member of it. Here, besides some of my friends 
 already mentioned, I met with several persons 
 who have since become much distinguished in 
 their several ways : Lord Glenelg, and his bro- 
 ther Robert, who died afterwards while Governor 
 of Madras ; Bowdler, Francis Horner, Dr. Bate- 
 man (author of the work on ' Cutaneous Dis- 
 eases '), Sir Henry Ellis, and others. Not long 
 after I had joined the society, a young Scotch- 
 man of uncouth appearance was admitted into 
 it, whom very few of us knew, who at that time, 
 while a student of one of the Inns of Court, was 
 maintaining himself, as I believe, by reporting 
 for the newspapers. I remember that he read 
 an essay, the object of which was to prove that 
 war had been the great agent in civilising the 
 world. He was an indifferent speaker, but what 
 he said was always to the purpose. This un- 
 known person became afterwards Attorney-Ge- 
 neral, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and is 
 now the Lord Chief Justice Campbell. The 
 three best speakers were the two Grants and 
 Bowdler. The latter, if he had lived, would un- 
 doubtedly have occupied a considerable place in
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 31 
 
 society; but he had ill-health, and died a very few 
 years after the period of which I am now speak- 
 ing. I was too shy and too much awed by the 
 society of persons generally a good deal older 
 than myself to take any part in the debates, ex- 
 cept when it was my turn to open the discussion, 
 and on these occasions my speeches had little to 
 recommend them, except their brevity. In the 
 first year, however, I furnished an essay on the 
 advantages which might be derived from meta- 
 physical enquiries. I read other essays after- 
 wards, one on the principles of science, and the 
 mode of conducting scientific enquiries (which 
 gained me some credit in the society), and 
 another on what were supposed to be modern 
 discoveries, which could be found in Pliny's 
 'Natural History/ I mention these trifling 
 matters merely because they show that, although 
 I was really studying hard in my profession, I 
 nevertheless found some leisure to think of other 
 tilings. Ellis and myself were for some time 
 joint secretaries, or, as we were called, registrars 
 of the society, and hence arose an intimacy be- 
 tween us, which has continued uninterrupted to
 
 32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 the present day. He was then a sub-librarian 
 of the British Museum, of which institution 
 he has been now for many years the principal 
 official person. 
 
 As I have introduced the ' Academical So- 
 ciety/ I shall give the rest of its history, which 
 may, however, be comprised in a few words. The 
 most zealous of its members was our president 
 Dr. Maton. He regarded it as an institution 
 for the advancement of literary and scientific 
 knowledge, and, I have no doubt, looked for- 
 Avard to the time when it would occupy a high 
 place among the learned societies of the metro- 
 polis. But it was too near to the Inns of Court 
 for this purpose. The young lawyers especially 
 were wont to introduce political allusions, on 
 which occasion Maton, sitting as president, 
 would take off the three-cornered hat which he 
 wore according to the fashion of that day, and 
 warn them that this was contrary to our regu- 
 lations. But his warnings were gradually less 
 and less attended to : the society assumed more 
 and more the character of a common debating 
 club, and our president resigned. The meetings
 
 Sill BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 33 
 
 were afterwards transferred to a larger room in 
 Chancery Lane, and, I believe, flourished very 
 much in their new character for a few years, 
 then declined, and died a natural death. In 
 fact, the altered habits of society have not been 
 favourable to these evening meetings. In the 
 beginning of the century lawyers dined at half- 
 past four or five o'clock, and had long evenings. 
 In like manner the Royal Society Club dined at 
 the Crown and Anchor at five o'clock, and made 
 a full attendance at Somerset House afterwards. 
 But now, when few persons of the best edu- 
 cated classes dine before seven o'clock, the meet- 
 ings of the Royal Society are scarcely attended, 
 there being not unfrequently no more than 
 twenty or thirty of the Fellows present, or, as 
 the French say, assisting on these occasions. 
 
 During my first winter in London, I attended 
 Mr. Abernethy's lectures on anatomy, and 
 worked in the dissecting-room, and attended Dr. 
 (now Sir Alexander) Crichton's lectures on che- 
 mistry every other morning. My time was not 
 so much occupied but that I had leisure for some 
 other pursuits. I read the first volume of
 
 34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 Dugald Stewart's 'Moral Philosophy/ which was 
 then lately published, and Berkeley's 'Dialogues' 
 and 'Principles of Human Knowledge/ which last 
 I obtained for the sum of half- a- crown at a book- 
 stall. If I were called upon to name the author 
 from a perusal of whose works I have derived 
 the most advantage, I should mention Berkeley. 
 Of course I refer not to his hypothesis of the 
 non-existence of the material universe, but to the 
 example which he affords of clear, precise, and 
 accurate reasoning, combined with a simple, un- 
 affected, and perspicuous style. At another book- 
 stall I found his 'Treatise on Tar-water/ of 
 which I read as much as I could. Full as it is 
 of learning, I wondered at that time, as I won- 
 der still, that the author of the ' Principles of 
 Human Knowledge' and the 'Essay on Vision' 
 should have produced another work with so 
 many strange conceits and illogical conclusions 
 as the ' Tar-water.' Berkeley's metaphysical 
 head seems to have been totally unfitted for 
 mere physical researches. 
 
 On the whole, the beginning of my London 
 life was agreeable enough, though it formed a
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 35 
 
 strange contrast to the quiet of my father's 
 house. In the spring of 1802 1 returned to "Win- 
 terslow. I had never been absent before for 
 more than a fortnight at a time, and once only 
 even for so long a period as this. I began at 
 last to suffer from a kind of nostalgia, and I shall 
 never forget the delight which I felt when, seated 
 in the little Salisbury coach, which performed 
 its journey of eighty-two miles in about thirteen 
 hours, I once more breathed the country air, 
 and looked out on green fields and trees, or re- 
 cognised the scenes of my boyhood gradually 
 disclose themselves as I walked from the Win- 
 terslow Hut (two miles off) to my father's house. 
 During the following summer (1802) I passed 
 my time much as I had done formerly. I 
 thought, however, that I ought to do something 
 towards advancing my professional knowledge, 
 and, accordingly, I borrowed Benjamin Bell's 
 1 System of Surgery ' from Mr. Wyche, one of 
 the surgeons to the Salisbury Infirmary. I 
 found it, however, a most unreadable produc- 
 tion ; indeed, I doubt whether it was ever read 
 by any one. Yet, somehow, it had a sort of 
 
 D2
 
 36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 reputation in its clay, which, I imagine, is to be 
 attributed to its being the work of a leading sur- 
 geon in Edinburgh, and to its consisting of some 
 half-dozen thick octavo volumes. 
 
 In the autumn I returned to London, and to 
 our former residence near the Inns of Court. 
 My elder brother, who had been staying in 
 London during the summer, was a favourite 
 pupil of Mr. Charles Butler, the eminent con- 
 veyancer, and the author of several literary 
 works. Mr. Butler's family were at this time 
 on the Continent (during a part of the short 
 peace), and my brother having been ill, Mr. 
 Butler very good-naturedly insisted on his stay- 
 ing with him at his house in Great Ormond 
 Street. This introduced me to his acquaintance. 
 He took, somehow, a liking to me, and from 
 that time to the day of his death treated me 
 with the greatest kindness. During the follow- 
 ing winter I attended Mr. Wilson's lectures in 
 Great Windmill Street, and worked hard in his 
 dissecting-room. For learning anatomy, Mr. 
 Wilson's school afforded much better opportu- 
 nities than that of my former teacher. He had a
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 37 
 
 most profound knowledge of his subject, and his 
 demonstrations were very far superior to those 
 of any other anatomist of that day ; and I may, 
 I believe, add, to those of any one since. He 
 kept up the attention of the diligent students, 
 who were really anxious to learn, not by the 
 aid of happy illustrations and appropriate anec- 
 dotes, but by the quantity of instruction which 
 he conveyed. For those of an inferior class, his 
 lectures were almost too good. With them, a 
 neighbouring teacher, who was more of a pri- 
 vate tutor than an anatomist (nomine Carpue), 
 was more popular. 
 
 During this my second, as well as my first, 
 winter in London, my professional studies were 
 wholly limited to anatomy, except that in the 
 early part of it, and afterwards, when I had no 
 subject for dissection, by Dr. Baillie's advice, 
 I attended in a chemist's shop, in order that I 
 might gain some knowledge of the Materia Me- 
 dica, and the making up of prescriptions. The 
 shop was at the corner of Little Newport Street, 
 and the proprietor of it was Mr. Clifton, who 
 also practised as an apothecary, exercising his
 
 38 
 
 art among the tradesmen of the neighbourhood. 
 He was an apothecary of the old school, having 
 no science in the ordinary sense of the word ; 
 yet, I have no doubt, a useful and successful 
 practitioner. I come to this conclusion because, 
 although there was nothing prepossessing in 
 either his manner or appearance, his practice 
 gradually increased, until at last he was able 
 to give up his shop and live in a large house 
 near Leicester Square, where he dispensed me- 
 dicines only to his own patients. It is usual in 
 these days to regard this class of practitioners 
 with little respect; but the fact is, that they 
 were very useful persons, and, having no very 
 ambitious aspirations, they were within the 
 reach of the poorer orders of society, which is 
 not much the case with the better educated sur- 
 geon-apothecaries, or, as they are called, general 
 practitioners, of the present day, who have ex- 
 pended a considerable sum of money in order 
 to obtain a license to practise. Mr. Clifton's 
 treatment of disease seemed to be very simple. 
 He had in his shop five large bottles, which Avere 
 labelled Mistura SaRna, Mistura Cathartica,
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 39 
 
 Mistura Astringens, Mistura Cinchona, and an- 
 other, of which I forget the name, but it was 
 some kind of white emulsion for coughs ; and 
 it seemed to me that out of these five bottles he 
 prescribed for two-thirds of his patients. I do 
 not, however, set this down to his discredit ; 
 for I have observed that, while young members 
 of the medical profession generally deal in a 
 great variety of remedies, they generally discard 
 the greater number of them as they grow older, 
 until at last their treatment of diseases becomes 
 almost as simple as that of the ^Esculapius of 
 Little Newport Street. There are some, indeed, 
 who form an exception to this general rule, who, 
 even to the last, seem to think that they have, 
 or ought to have, a specific for everything, and 
 are always making experiments with new reme- 
 dies. The consequence is that they do not cure 
 the patients, which the patients at last find out, 
 and then they have no patients left. 
 
 During my attendance at the Windmill Street 
 school I worked hard in the dissecting-room, 
 and learned a good deal of anatomy. If I did 
 so, however, it must be owned that it was rather
 
 40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 as a duty, and because it was necessary to ray 
 future undertakings, than because I had any 
 particular taste for the details of anatomical 
 study. I remember some years afterwards din- 
 ing with a friend (Henry Drummond, the pre- 
 sent member of Parliament for West Surrey), 
 who was a craniologist, at the Athenaeum, when 
 he told me that he saw that I had the organ of 
 constructiveness much developed, and that this 
 explained how it was that I excelled in the use 
 of my hands, and was an excellent dissector. 
 There was never a greater mistake. I was 
 naturally very clumsy in the nse of my hands, 
 and it was only by taking great pains with my- 
 self that I became at all otherwise. 
 
 During this my second winter in London, I 
 made only one acquaintance with whom I was 
 at all intimate among my fellow-students, in 
 the person of Mr. Rose, who ultimately became 
 a surgeon of the same hospital with myself, and 
 is still well known by a very valuable paper 
 published in the ' Medico-Chirurgical Transac- 
 tions/ Rose was a nephew of Dr. Reid, the 
 author of the ( Inquiry into the Human Mind
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 41 
 
 on the Principles of Common Sense/ and had 
 been educated by him at Glasgow. From thence 
 he was transplanted to Oxford as one of the 
 Glasgow exhibitioners at Balliol, and then to 
 London as a student in surgery. We lived 
 very much together, and our friendship con- 
 tinued without a day's interruption until his 
 death, about twenty-five years afterwards. He 
 was a thoroughly honourable, high-minded man, 
 having little imagination, but a very clear head 
 and sound judgment. I have no doubt that my 
 intimacy with him tended very much to the 
 improvement of my own character, and I look 
 back to the friendship which existed between 
 us as one of the most happy circumstances of 
 my life. This excellent man belonged to a family 
 who had a tendency to pulmonary disease. In 
 the year 1828 he had the misfortune to lose 
 three out of four children from the effects of 
 scarlet fever. This broke his heart. The dis- 
 ease of which his brothers and sisters had been 
 the victims became developed in himself, and he 
 soon followed his children to the grave. 
 
 In the spring of 1803 I first entered as a pupil
 
 42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 under Mr. (afterwards Sir Everard) Home, at 
 St. George's Hospital. 
 
 At this time Mr. Home was the leading sur- 
 geon at the west end of London. He was looked 
 up to with something like veneration by all the 
 hospital pupils. He was punctual in his attend- 
 ance, performed his duties with great ability, 
 and was far above all his colleagues, both in his 
 diagnosis of disease and as an operating sur- 
 geon. As a practical surgeon, I do not think 
 that Mr. Thomas Keate, the senior surgeon, was 
 at all his inferior ; indeed, the latter had rather 
 an advantage over him in the medical treat- 
 ment of his patients. But Mr. Keate occupied 
 what at that time was a very high station as 
 surgeon-general to the army. In the time of 
 war this was a place of great responsibility, with 
 the disadvantage, for so it is, of a very exten- 
 sive patronage. Partly in consequence of his 
 time being thus very much occupied, and partly 
 from being naturally of unpunctual habits, he 
 was negligent of his hospital duties, and he was 
 not estimated as, with his talents and know- 
 ledge, he would have been otherwise.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 43 
 
 I had now left ray old lodgings, where I lived 
 with my brother Peter, in Carey Street, and re- 
 sided in the neighbourhood of the hospital, in 
 order that I might be better able to attend to 
 my hospital studies. At this period I made one 
 valuable addition to my professional acquaint- 
 ance, Nicolson, who is still living, though in 
 dilapidated health, at Calcutta. He was some 
 years older than myself, was a protege of Mr. 
 Home, had a house opposite his in Sackville 
 Street, and assisted him in his private practice. 
 He was a man of considerable talents, and an 
 excellent practical surgeon, but with no taste 
 for the science of his profession. Three years 
 afterwards he went to India in the service of the 
 East India Company, where, from the high cha- 
 racter which he brought with him, he had at 
 once an office given him which enabled him to 
 reside at the seat of government. He soon ob- 
 tained a very large and lucrative private prac- 
 tice in Calcutta, besides acquiring a great de- 
 gree of popularity, to which his kind disposition 
 and open and manly character justly entitled 
 nim.
 
 44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 The commencement of my studies at the hos- 
 pital was that of a completely new era in my 
 life. Hitherto it is true that I had worked 
 hard enough. With the exception of Lawrence, 
 I doubt whether any one of my acquaintance 
 had been equally diligent. But it was rather as 
 a matter of duty, or I rather ought to say of 
 necessity, than because I felt any very great in- 
 terest in what I was doing ; and most willingly, 
 if I could have afforded it, would I have turned 
 my back on anatomy and returned to literary 
 pursuits. A great change took place as soon as I 
 became familiar with the business of the hospital. 
 
 To those who really desire to learn, the wards 
 of a hospital are soon found to be replete with 
 interest. At first all is confusion. The nice 
 distinction of symptoms on which the diagnosis 
 of disease depends, why the pulse in one case 
 indicates immediate danger, and in another none 
 at all, why one patient recovers and another dies, 
 why the same kind of treatment is successful in 
 one instance and fails in another, these, and a 
 multitude of other matters, are quite inexpli- 
 cable to the young student. Everything is seen
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 45 
 
 as it were through a mist. After no long time, 
 however, the mist begins to clear away, and 
 whoever has advanced thus far finds no diffi- 
 culty afterwards. Every case is an interesting 
 subject of enquiry. A great game is being 
 played, in which the stake is often neither more 
 nor less than the life or death of a fellow-crea- 
 ture, and in which those among the students 
 who devote themselves to their business per- 
 form a humble yet not unimportant part with- 
 out any painful feeling of responsibility. Not 
 many months elapsed before I became sensible 
 of the good effect of these new studies, and of 
 the wisdom of Dr. Baillie's advice that I should 
 make myself a tolerably complete anatomist be- 
 fore I commenced my attendance at the hos- 
 pital ; as I found that I was able to comprehend 
 many things that were passing under my ob- 
 servation which I could never have properly 
 comprehended otherwise, and in which those 
 who were less prepared in this respect were 
 little able to understand. 
 
 During the summer of 1803 I never failed to 
 pass the early part of the day in the wards of
 
 46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 the hospital. In the afternoon I usually dined 
 by myself at my lodgings in Knightsbridge, and 
 in the evening read some Latin classics, and 
 other books which formed my scanty library, 
 or a novel from a small circulating library at 
 Brompton, or -walked in Kensington Gardens. 
 As the season advanced, most of my friends left 
 London. A few, however, remained, whom I 
 met occasionally ; among them was Dibdin, 
 since known by his works on Bibliography, who 
 at that time resided at Kensington, not very far 
 from my lodgings at Knightsbridge, and with 
 whom I occasionally wandered to hear the night- 
 ingales in the lane beyond Holland House. In 
 September I returned to my father's house at 
 Winterslow, intending to remain there only for 
 a short time, and to be in London again when 
 the lectures in Windmill Street were resumed 
 on the 1st of October. I had not, however, 
 bsen long in the country before I had an attack 
 of fever, which confined me for some time to 
 my bed. On my recovery, my father took me 
 to the seaside at Mudeford, in Hampshire, from 
 whence I returned to London at the end of Oc-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 47 
 
 tober. This was the last opportunity I had of 
 seeing my father. He drove me in his phaeton 
 to Lymington, where I found the mail-coach 
 which conveyed me to Southampton. On the 
 following morning I embarked in one of the 
 long stage-coaches then in use (like a modern 
 omnibus) , which conveyed me to London. It 
 was a melancholy journey. My father's health 
 was visibly failing ; though, as far as my bodily 
 powers were concerned, I had pretty well reco- 
 vered from the effects of my illness, my animal 
 spirits were at a very low ebb. I had never 
 before, and have never since then, been in so 
 desponding a state of mind ; and I shall never 
 forget the feelings which oppressed me as I 
 passed through the romantic scenery of the New 
 Forest, or as I sate on the following day, with 
 eleven other passengers, in the slow-going long 
 coach. It seemed as if I was not equal to 
 climbing the mountain which lay before me; 
 yet I was sensible that I had no alternative, and 
 that I must either climb it or starve. This state 
 of mind, however, was not of long duration : I 
 was soon hard at work, and forgot my anxieties.
 
 48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 I now removed to some lodgings in May Fair, 
 which, being situated between Hyde Park Cor- 
 ner and Great Windmill Street, enabled me 
 more easily to divide my studies between the 
 hospital and the school of anatomy. At the 
 latter I had obtained some credit with Mr. Wil- 
 son and his colleague Mr. Thomas. The latter 
 only delivered a few of the anatomical lectures, 
 but it was understood that he was to superin- 
 tend the dissections, and give an anatomical de- 
 monstration for an hour daily in the dissecting- 
 room. He was not very fond of his vocation as 
 a teacher, and as he was acquiring a consider- 
 able share of private practice, he was led to play 
 truant a good deal. When he did so, he was 
 accustomed to ask me to give the demonstration 
 in his place; an arrangement which was attended 
 with no difficulty, as both Mr. Wilson and the 
 students were, or seemed to be, well satisfied 
 with it, and as I felt myself sufficiently rewarded 
 for the trouble which it gave me by the position 
 in which it placed me above that of the ordinary 
 students. 
 
 During this winter (1803-1804) I still con-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 49 
 
 tirmed to attend the meetings of the Academical 
 Society, and kept up my intercourse with my 
 former friends about the Inns of Court. By 
 great prudence I continued to live with sufficient 
 comfort without making more than a very mode- 
 rate demand on my father's limited means, and 
 was never once in debt. I felt, however, that it 
 would be very convenient to me indeed to have 
 a little more money at my disposal. Some of 
 my friends at this time obtained some additions 
 to their incomes by writing for magazines and 
 other publications. Ellis especially in great 
 measure maintained himself in that way, and it 
 came into my mind that I might follow his ex- 
 ample. I offered a disquisition on the study of 
 metaphysics to Richard Phillips, who published 
 the ( Monthly Magazine ' (and who was after- 
 wards Sir Richard Phillips, and himself the 
 author of a crazy work on Natural Philosophy). 
 Phillips declined to accept it, in which he was 
 quite right; it was a very absnrd production. 
 He did not, however, altogether decline my ser- 
 vices. One of his speculations was the publica- 
 tion of a book under the name of ' The Annual
 
 50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 Biography/ and, knowing that I had lived in 
 Wiltshire, he proposed that I should write the 
 life of Beckford of Fonthill, the author of ' Va- 
 thek/ As I knew nothing of this individual 
 except some general reports, of which the less 
 was said the better, I declined the proposal. I 
 then offered some papers on literary subjects to 
 Baldwin's 'Literary Journal/ a magazine which 
 has been long since extinct. These were trum- 
 pery enough ; nevertheless they were favourably 
 received, and my vanity was soon gratified by 
 seeing myself for the first time in print. The 
 editor wrote to me that he was in my debt, and 
 that I might receive a small sum that was owing 
 to me whenever I could go to New Bridge Street 
 for the purpose. I know not how it was that 
 I never applied for the money. I found that I . 
 could not well follow two trades at the same 
 time, and thus my literary adventures soon came 
 to an end. 
 
 I have mentioned that when I parted with my 
 father in the previous autumn his health was a 
 good deal failing. It continued to fail through 
 the winter, but he was so anxious not to inter-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 51 
 
 fere with the studies of my elder brother and 
 myself that he would not allow us to be informed 
 of it. In March an alteration for the worse took 
 place rather suddenly ; and before we were aware 
 that his life was in any real danger he was no 
 more. I had never before known what it was 
 to lose any one for whom I had much affection, 
 and I felt the loss most acutely. It dwelt on 
 my mind long afterwards, and I well remember 
 that for some months he was continually present 
 to me in my dreams. My uncle. Charles Col- 
 lins, who was an unmarried man, invited our 
 whole family to his house at Salisbury, where 
 we remained until after the funeral. I then re- 
 turned to London forlorn enough, but less so 
 than I should have been if I had not found 
 much kindness and sympathy among some of 
 my relations, especially Dr. and Mrs. Denman, 
 Lady Staunton, and my cousins Mrs. Baillie 
 and the present Sir George Staunton. The lat- 
 ter was two years older than myself, had been 
 my playfellow when we were boys, and has con- 
 tinued my intimate friend, without our friend- 
 ship having been interrupted for one instant, 
 z 2
 
 52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 even to the present day. He was at this time 
 a writer in the East India Company's factory at 
 Canton, but was in England 011 leave of absence, 
 and living with his mother. 
 
 I must avail myself of this last opportunity 
 of saying a few words more respecting my 
 father. I have already expressed how great 
 our obligations are to him for the pains which 
 he took with the education of my brothers and 
 myself. It is still a matter of surprise with me 
 that he should by himself have been able to do 
 so much for us in the way of instruction as he 
 did. But I owe him much more for the ex- 
 ample which he set us as a man of the most 
 strict integrity and honour, with an almost chi- 
 valrous notion of independence. He taught us 
 to trust to nothing but our own character and 
 conduct; and to disdain the attaining advan- 
 tages by any other means. In early life, having 
 lived much with Lord Holland and his friends, 
 he had been what was then called a Foxiie, and 
 he continued to be a Liberal in politics to the 
 last. This, in a worldly point of view, was 
 much to his disadvantage, as, for many years
 
 SIR BEXJAMIX BRODIE, BART. 53 
 
 bofore lie died, a violent party spirit prevailed, 
 and the Tory party were predominant. He was 
 a Liberal in other matters also, having no kind 
 of horror of Dissenters. He was a sincerely 
 religious person, but he made no parade of his 
 religion. He made us read Butler's ' Analogy ' 
 and Paley's ' Evidences/ but never discussed 
 such abstruse points in theology as those which 
 agitate men's minds in the present contentious 
 age. His great fault, and indeed the only one 
 of which I have any recollection, was a hasty 
 and impetuous temper ; but this was combined 
 with great tenderness and kindness of disposi- 
 tion. If he was sometimes wanting in that 
 degree of patience which is essential in a tutor 
 having to deal with his pupils whose wits are 
 not equally bright on all occasions, his affection 
 for us was unvarying. He was always anxious 
 to promote our innocent recreations, and I have 
 no doubt that the great object of his ambition 
 was to qualify us to become happy and useful 
 members of society in after life. 
 
 Some time after the loss of my father, my 
 mother removed from ^Vinterslow to a house in
 
 54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 the immediate neighbourhood of Salisbury. The 
 situation was convenient to her, as it brought 
 her near to my grandmother and my uncle 
 Charles Collins. Her income was very limited, 
 being reduced still further by an income-tax of 
 ten per cent.; and being, moreover, rendered 
 less efficient than it would have been at the 
 present day in consequence of the high prices, 
 not only of provisions, but of all other com- 
 modities. The dearness of things depended 
 partly on the great demand occasioned by the 
 expensive war in which the country was en- 
 gaged, partly on increased taxation, partly on 
 the depreciation of bank-notes under Mr. Pitt's 
 Bank Restriction Act. The possessors of real 
 property were flourishing ; the income of pro- 
 fessional persons kept pace with the times ; and 
 the proprietors of Bank of England stock shared 
 large profits at the expense of the community, 
 in the shape of frequent bonuses ; but persons 
 of fixed incomes were sadly straitened, and my 
 mother was one of them. She was, however, 
 an excellent manager, prudent, careful, and as 
 free from selfishness as it is possible for any one
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. OO 
 
 to be. She at once determined that she would 
 do her best to maintain my brother and myself 
 in the course on which we had entered, and 
 partly out of her income, and partly by not 
 hesitating to sink a portion of her capital, she 
 was enabled to do so. Of course this could not 
 have been accomplished, as far as my elder 
 brother and myself were concerned, if we our- 
 selves had not partaken of her care and pru- 
 dence. By avoiding all extravagances we con- 
 tinued to live with as much comfort, and to 
 keep up as respectable an appearance, as many 
 of our associates whose means Avere larger than 
 our own, and who indeed were not unfrequently 
 in difficulties which we were able to avoid. 
 
 During the summer of 1804, a friend of mine, 
 of the name of Jeffreys, was house surgeon of 
 the hospital, and my intimacy with him enabled 
 me to pursue my studies there with great advan- 
 tage. He had more knowledge of his profes- 
 sion than most young men of his standing. In 
 the early part of the day, I was always with 
 him in the wards; and in the evening, we were 
 generally together. It was from him that I
 
 56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 first learned the importance of keeping written 
 notes of cases, a practice which I continued 
 ever afterwards. These notes I have carefully 
 preserved. They now form many thick quarto 
 volumes of manuscripts, to which (and even to 
 the earliest of them) I not unfrequently refer 
 with advantage, even at this advanced period of 
 my professional life. My custom has been to 
 take short notes at the bedside of the patients 
 in the day, and to expand them with the aid of 
 my memory in the evening. Thus they became 
 an exercise of the memory, and, instead of 
 weakening, tended to strengthen that important 
 faculty. After an experience of nearly fifty 
 years, I am satisfied that no one can be well 
 acquainted with his profession, either as a phy- 
 sician or surgeon, who has not studied it in that 
 manner. It is only by these means that a case 
 can be thoroughly and scientifically investigated, 
 or that that minute and accurate knowledge 
 of it can be obtained which is necessary to a 
 right diagnosis. For one who is to occupy 
 hereafter the situation of a consulting practi- 
 tioner, to whom younger or less experienced
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 57 
 
 persons will apply for assistance in cases of 
 doubt or difficulty, it answers another purpose, 
 as it enables him to express himself with greater 
 facility, and especially to give written opinions 
 with a degree of clearness and precision with 
 which he could not give them otherwise. I 
 have always, during the many years in which I 
 was a teacher and a hospital surgeon, endea- 
 voured to impress on the minds of my pupils 
 the necessity of making and preserving such 
 written records of their experience j and I have 
 often been pained to observe how small a pro- 
 portion have followed the advice which I gave 
 them. Some of them find a difficulty in doing 
 so from the want of original education, and 
 really not having a sufficient knowledge of the 
 use of language even for this simple kind of 
 literary composition; others neglect it from 
 mere idleness ; while the great mass of students, 
 whose period of professional education is limited, 
 are so occupied by the great (and, as I think, 
 unnecessary) number of lectures which they are 
 now required to attend, and in running from 
 one class-room to another, that they really have
 
 58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 neither the leisure nor the physical powers 
 necessary for pursuing, in any efficient manner, 
 the practical study of disease in the wards of 
 the hospital. 
 
 Although I had now become much interested 
 in my hospital studies, I passed a great part of 
 my time during the following winter (1804- 
 1805) in the Anatomical School, where, in con- 
 sequence of Mr. Thomas having become still 
 more occupied with his private practice, I had 
 almost the exclusive superintendence of the dis- 
 secting-room, under Mr. Wilson, who generally 
 appeared there for a very short time in the fore- 
 noon. Mr. Home had made an arrangement 
 by which I was to become house surgeon o the 
 hospital in the following Midsummer, this being 
 then, as it now is, an office held during twelve 
 months by one of the better-informed students. 
 At the end of the anatomical session, however, 
 a circumstance occurred, the effect of which was 
 to disturb this arrangement. Mr. Thomas de- 
 termined to retire from his office as a teacher of 
 anatomy, and Mr. Wilson proposed to me that I 
 should succeed him as the demonstrator in the 
 School
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. OiJ 
 
 * 
 
 [A portion of the MS. is wanting. ,] * 
 
 .... they agreed that I should supply his 
 place, with the understanding that I should be 
 at liberty to vacate the office in the latter part 
 of the autumn, as soon as I found that my duty 
 as a teacher of anatomy rendered it necessary 
 for me to do so. This was a very fortunate 
 circumstance, as my residence in the hospital, 
 even for six months, enabled me to obtain a 
 great deal of knowledge as to the details of 
 surgical practice which it would have cost me a 
 great deal of trouble to obtain otherwise. 
 
 I must not pass over this part of my life 
 without noticing a very great advantage which I 
 possessed during the period of my professional 
 education, compared with what I should have 
 had if I had lived in these later times. No 
 
 * The omission probably consisted of a paragraph stating 
 that Mr. Jeffreys was about to vacate the office of house- 
 surgeon, and that Sir B. Brodie was to be appointed in his 
 place which was the case. He held that office from May 
 to November, 1805, when be resigned it to undertake the 
 duties of teacher of anatomy in the Windmill Street School. 
 Note from the complete edition of Sir B. Brodie's Works, edited 
 by Mr. C. Hawkins.
 
 OU AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 rules were then laid down as to the number of 
 lectures which I was required to attend. The 
 examination at the College of Surgeons was 
 sufficiently good, as far as it went, but it was 
 of a very simple and elementary kind. It was 
 no more than a diligent student might pass 
 without any special preparation for the purpose. 
 The consequence was, that I was enabled to 
 take my education very much upon myself; and 
 I soon found that I could nohow obtain so much 
 useful knowledge as by a diligent attendance on 
 the dissecting-room, and on the wards of the 
 hospital. I cannot say that I neglected the use 
 of books, but it was more in the way of refer- 
 ence and illustration than by a regular course 
 of reading. I attended lectures on Anatomy, 
 and, during one season, Dr. Crichton's lectures 
 on the Practice of Physic, Materia Medica, and 
 Chemistry, the latter especially with some ad- 
 vantage. During my first season in London, I 
 had entered as a pupil to Mr. Abernethy's lec- 
 tures on Surgery ; but having at that time seen 
 no surgical practice, I did not understand them, 
 and soon ceased to attend them. I afterwards
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 61 
 
 entered to some other lectures on Surgery, at 
 the West-end of the town, but found that I 
 learned nothing from them, so I ceased to attend 
 there also. Mr. Home was accustomed to give 
 an annual course of twelve surgical lectures 
 gratuitously to the pupils of the hospital. These 
 were excellent, and I attended them, year after 
 year, with great advantage. Altogether, I do 
 not suppose that I attended one-fourth of the 
 number of lectures which the unfortunate stu- 
 dents are now required to listen to under the 
 direction of the constituted authorities. But 
 I was acquiring knowledge in other ways, and 
 much more substantial knowledge than can be 
 acquired from such dull and humdrum discourses 
 as lectures usually are ; and, which is better 
 still, I had leisure to make my own observations, 
 to think and reflect. Nor was this style of 
 education peculiar to myself. I remember when 
 Mr. Abernethy complained that Lawrence would 
 not attend lectures. My friends and contem- 
 poraries, Jeffreys and Lawrence, took the same 
 course ; and so it had been with Nicolson, who 
 was some few years in advance of us. I can
 
 62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 easily conceive that, if I had been compelled 
 to sit on the benches of a theatre four or five 
 hours daily, or tempted to compete for prizes as 
 students are, and to get crammed for various 
 examinations, my position in life afterwards 
 would have been very different from what it has 
 been in reality. 
 
 It so happened that when I was about to give 
 up my office as house surgeon to the hospital, 
 Nicolson, whom I have just mentioned, being 
 engaged to be married, and finding that some 
 few years might probably elapse before he could 
 conveniently do so if he waited for practice in 
 London, determined to seek his fortune else- 
 where, and accepted an appointment in the ser- 
 vice of the East India Company in Bengal ; and 
 that Mr. Home proposed to me that I should 
 supply his place by assisting him in his private 
 operations. I conclude that he thought that I 
 should answer his purpose in this respect, but I 
 know that he was partly led to do so by the cir- 
 cumstance of my having made myself a pretty 
 good anatomist, and by the wish to have my help 
 in carrying out the enquiries in comparative
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BROUIE, BART. 63 
 
 anatomy in which he was generally engaged. 
 As these occupations were quite compatible with 
 those which I had in the "Windmill Street School, 
 I was very glad to undertake them. They af- 
 forded me the means of learning much as to my 
 profession which cannot be well learned in a hos- 
 pital ; and further, by initiating me in the study 
 of anatomy and physiology generally, without 
 limiting my views merely to that which is re- 
 quired for surgical practice, they led me to scien- 
 tific enquiries, which for many years afterwards 
 formed a most agreeable addition to the drudgery 
 of my every-day duties. My connection with 
 Mr. Home also made some addition to my in- 
 come, as I saw those of his patients who were 
 disposed to have the advice of so young a man 
 as I was while he was in the country for three 
 weeks in September, and as I also received a few 
 fees on some other occasions. My gains, how- 
 ever, in this way were very small ; Mr. Home 
 never had a very large practice, such as at all 
 corresponded to his reputation. One year, and 
 that was before I knew him, he had received 
 about 6,700/. in fees. This was much less than
 
 64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 what Mr. Cline, or Sir Astley Cooper, or my- 
 self, have received since ; but his income while I 
 knew him never, I imagine, amounted to 5,000/., 
 and as he had a large family and lived expen- 
 sively, he had nothing to spare out of it for 
 others. Still, what I gained from that source 
 and from teaching anatomy, enabled me to make 
 a somewhat smaller demand on my mother's 
 slender means ; and as I always looked to the 
 future, and not to the present results of my 
 exertions, I was quite contented. 
 
 For nearly two years and a half after I had 
 ceased to reside at the hospital as house surgeon, 
 there was little change in my pursuits or mode 
 of life. During the greater part of that time 
 I lived in lodgings in Sackville Street. The 
 winter months supplied me with a good deal of 
 occupation in the dissecting-room ; and what- 
 ever time I could spare from my duties as a 
 teacher of anatomy was well devoted to the hos- 
 pital. I assisted Mr. Home in his private opera- 
 tions and on some other occasions, and to a still 
 greater extent in his researches in comparative 
 anatomy. In this latter employment I was
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BKODIE, BART. 65 
 
 associated a good deal with Mr. Clift, the con- 
 servator of the museum of the College of Sur- 
 geons. I ought not to mention Mr. Clift's name 
 without expressing not only how much I am 
 indebted to him for the information which he 
 afforded me on the subjects with which he was 
 conversant, but also the great esteem which I 
 have always had for his general character. His 
 history, as I have heard it related by those who 
 were acquainted with it, was nearly as follows : 
 Mr. Hunter was acquainted with Mi's. Gilbert, 
 a lady of fortune in Cornwall. In conversation 
 with her he observed that he had great difficulty 
 in obtaining fit persons to assist him in making 
 his anatomical museum, and that he believed that 
 his best way would be himself to educate a lad 
 especially for this purpose. Mrs. Gilbert said 
 that she knew a very clever boy, who was accus- 
 tomed to come into her kitchen in Cornwall and 
 make drawings with chalk on the floor, who 
 would, with proper instruction, become an excel- 
 lent draughtsman, and who, from the ability 
 which he displayed, would probably answer his 
 purpose very well in other matters; and she 
 F
 
 66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 offered to negotiate with the boy and his parents 
 or him to come to London on trial. Mr. Hunter 
 gladly availed himself of this offer, and the nego- 
 tiation ended in Clift becoming an inmate in 
 Hunter's house. I do not know the exact date, 
 but I believe that this was not more than two 
 or three years before Hunter's death. On the 
 occurrence of this event, Hunter's executors 
 (Dr. Baillie and Mr. Home) engaged Clift to 
 take charge of the museum until they had found 
 the means of disposing of it for the benefit of 
 his family ; and when it was purchased by Par- 
 liament, and consigned to the care of the College 
 of Surgeons, the council of the college retained 
 him for the same purpose, under the name of 
 conservator, a situation which he retained during 
 the remainder of his life. 
 
 Cliffs early education had probably not ex- 
 tended beyond reading and writing, but he had 
 a vast desire of acquiring knowledge ; had read 
 a great deal in an irregular manner ; but his 
 chief study was that of the museum in which he 
 lived for many years ; and with this he had a 
 more intimate acquaintance than any other per-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN" BRODIE, BART. 67 
 
 son after the death of the great philosopher by 
 whom it was founded. He had great sagacity, 
 great powers of observation, and great memory, 
 but he wanted that method which a better early 
 education would have afforded him ; and his 
 knowledge, though extensive, was of a very de- 
 sultory kind. His devotion to the memory of 
 Hunter, and his attachment to the museum, 
 formed a remarkable feature of his character, at 
 the same time that his simplicity of mind, his 
 disinterestedness, and the kindness of his dispo- 
 sition, gained him the affection of all who knew 
 him. 
 
 It was during the period of which I am now 
 speaking, and not very long after I had ceased 
 to be house surgeon, that Mr. Home intro- 
 duced me to Sir Joseph Banks. Sir Joseph 
 took much interest in any one who was in any 
 way engaged in the pursuit of science, and as I 
 suppose, partly from Home's recommendation, 
 and partly from knowing that I was occupied 
 with him in making dissections in comparative 
 anatomy, was led to show me much kindness 
 and attention, such as it was very agreeable for
 
 68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 so young a man to receive from so distinguished 
 a person. He invited me to the meetings which 
 were held in his library on the Sunday evenings 
 which intervened between the meetings of the 
 Royal Society. These meetings were of a very 
 different kind from those larger assemblies which 
 were held three or four times in the season by 
 the Duke of Sussex, the Marquis of Northamp- 
 ton, and Lord Rosse, and they were much more 
 useful. There was no crowding together of 
 noblemen and philosophers and would-be philo- 
 sophers, nor any kind of magnificent display. 
 The visitors consisted of those who were already 
 distinguished by their scientific reputation, of 
 some younger men who, like myself, were fol- 
 lowing these greater persons at a humble dis- 
 tance, of a few individuals of high station who, 
 though not working men themselves, were re- 
 garded by Sir Joseph as patrons of science, 
 of such foreigners of distinction as during the 
 war were to be found in London, and of very 
 few besides. Everything was conducted in the 
 plainest manner. Tea was handed round to the 
 company, and there were no other refreshments.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BUODIE, BAIIT. 69 
 
 But here were to be seen the elder Herschel, 
 Davy, Wollaston, Young, Hatchett, Wilkins the 
 Sanscrit scholar, Marsden, Major RenneU, 
 Henry Cavendish, Home, Barrow, Maskelyne, 
 Blagden, Abernethy, Carlisle, and others who 
 have long since passed away, but whose reputa- 
 tion still remains, and gives a character to the 
 age in which they lived. 
 
 In the course of the first few years which 
 elapsed after my introduction to Sir Joseph 
 Banks, I derived so much advantage from the 
 society which I met in his library, and occa- 
 sionally at his dinner-table, that I feel it in some 
 measure a duty not to omit some further notice 
 of this eminent individual. I have been informed 
 by those who might be supposed to be well ac- 
 quainted with his history, that as a boy at Eton 
 he was a very indifferent student of Greek and 
 Latin, and that he was himself mortified to find 
 how much less a proficient he was in the school 
 exercises than his fellow-pupils. But even at 
 this early period he began the study of plants ; 
 examining the different parts of their structure, 
 and laying the foundation of that extensive
 
 70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 knowledge for which he was afterwards distin- 
 guished in this department of natiiral history. 
 Having inherited a considerable fortune, he had 
 no taste for the usual trifling pursuits of affluent 
 young men, and being of an enterprising dispo- 
 sition, he obtained permission to accompany 
 Captain Cook in one (I believe the first) of his 
 voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean. I 
 do not know how soon it was after his return to 
 England that he was elected President of the 
 Royal Society, superseding the former President, 
 Sir John Pringle. His election took place after 
 a severe contest, in which his principal opponents 
 were the mathematicians, with Dr. Horsley, the 
 Eishop of Rochester, at their head. He was 
 created a Baronet, a Civil Knight of the Bath 
 (corresponding to the G.C.B. of the present 
 time), and a Privy Councillor. He was annually 
 re-elected to the presidential chair for many 
 years, resigning the office as soon as he found 
 that his declining health prevented his attending 
 the meetings, that being not long before he died. 
 His London residence was in Soho Square, 
 there being extensive premises behind his dwell-
 
 SIB BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 71 
 
 ing-house, which contained his library and his 
 botanical collection. The former consisted 
 chiefly of books on Natural History and the 
 transactions of learned societies, and was pro- 
 bably in these departments unrivalled in the 
 world. His principal librarian was a Swede, Dr. 
 Dryander; and under his superintendence the 
 library was so well managed that, although books 
 were lent to men of science in the most liberal 
 manner, I believe that not a volume was ever 
 lost. Dryander was indeed a pattern as a libra- 
 rian. The library over which he presided was 
 to him all in all. Without being a man of 
 science himself, he knew every book, and the 
 contents of every book in it. If any one en- 
 quired of him where he might look for informa- 
 tion on any particular subject, he would go first 
 to one shelf, then to another, and return with a 
 bundle of books under his arm containing the 
 information which was desired. 
 
 Besides Dryander, there were two others who 
 acted as sub-librarians, and Dr. Brown, the bo- 
 tanist, who had the charge of the botanical col- 
 lection. Brown had formerly been engaged as
 
 72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 naturalist in Captain Flinder's expedition of 
 discovery. At the time of which I am speaking, 
 he might be seen daily in Sir Joseph's library, 
 dissecting plants, and accumulating those stores 
 of knowledge which have since gained for him 
 the reputation .of being the first botanist and 
 botanical physiologist in the world, and the ho- 
 nour of being one of the very limited number 
 of foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences 
 of Paris. By his will, Sir Joseph directed that 
 Brown should receive an annuity during his 
 life, on condition of his taking charge of his 
 library, which was still to be accessible to men 
 of science as heretofore. He further directed 
 that after Brown's death the library should be 
 transferred to the British Museum. It being, 
 however, found that a more convenient arrange- 
 ment might be made both for Brown and for 
 the public, the trustees of the Museum ap- 
 pointed Brown keeper of the botany in that in- 
 stitution, and the library was at once transferred 
 to its ultimate destination. 
 
 The attention which Sir Joseph Banks paid 
 to the affairs of the Royal Society was unremit-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 73 
 
 ting. He was very much of an autocrat, but, 
 like other successful autocrats, he maintained 
 his authority by consulting the feelings and opi- 
 nions of others, and no one complained of it. 
 There is no doubt that his ample fortune, and 
 his devotion of it to purposes of natural science, 
 made his task more easy than it would have 
 been otherwise ; still, he could not have accom- 
 plished what he did if he had not possessed, a 
 great knowledge of human nature. It was by 
 a combination of these means that he was en- 
 abled to exercise his influence ove,r the philo- 
 sophers, so that every one among them looked 
 up to him as a friend and counsellor ; and that 
 he succeeded in keeping in abeyance among 
 them those feelings of jealousy from which even 
 those who, standing apart from mere vulgar 
 pursuits, devote themselves to the acquisition 
 of knowledge, are not altogether exempt. 
 
 During the greater part of the summer, Sir 
 Joseph resided at his house in Lincolnshire, 
 where he occupied himself chiefly with agricul- 
 tural pursuits, and in presiding over agricul- 
 tural meetings. In November he returned to
 
 74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 his house in Soho Square, in time to be pre- 
 sent at the first meeting of the Royal Society. 
 During the winter, besides the weekly evening 
 meetings in his library, he was in the habit of 
 entertaining parties of scientific men at dinner. 
 Every morning he had a sort of public breakfast 
 in his library, at which foreigners of distinction 
 and others were introduced to him. As the 
 spring advanced he left his house in London to 
 reside at a villa known as ' Spring Grove/ near 
 Hounslow, where he remained until the session 
 of the Royal Society terminated. Here he dined 
 daily at four o'clock, in order that his frequent 
 visitors from London might have ample time to 
 return home in the evening. When the weather 
 permitted, his guests adjourned to have tea and 
 coffee under the cedars in the garden. In the 
 intermediate time it was not unusual to visit 
 his hot-houses and conservatories, under the 
 auspices of his unmarried sister, Miss Banks ; 
 or the dairy, which was under the especial care 
 of Lady Banks, who was proud of displaying a 
 magnificent collection of old china-ware which 
 was there deposited. These parties at Spring
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 7O 
 
 Grove were not the less agreeable because they 
 generally consisted of few persons, and every- 
 thing was conducted in a simple and unosten- 
 tatious manner. 
 
 On the whole, it is difficult to conceive that 
 any one could perform his duties as President 
 of the Royal Society in a manner more ho- 
 nourable to himself, or more beneficial to the 
 community, than that in which they were per- 
 formed by Sir Joseph Banks. It is to be ob- 
 served at the same time that he had some pecu- 
 liar advantages, having an ample fortune and 
 no family, and having also the good taste to 
 avoid being involved in political discussions and 
 disputes. 
 
 In March, 1808, through the interest of 
 Mr. Home, with the assistance of his colleague, 
 and of some little reputation which I had my- 
 self acquired as a young teacher of anatomy, I 
 was elected assistant-surgeon to St. George's 
 Hospital. I was fortunate in obtaining such 
 an appointment so early in life. I was indeed 
 not quite twenty-five years of age (my birthday
 
 76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 being in June). I was at that time living in 
 lodgings at No. 24 Sackville Street, not having 
 my name on the door as a candidate for private 
 practice, and being still one of the senior students 
 at the hospital. From the date of my appoint- 
 ment Mr. Home left me very much of the ma- 
 nagement of his patients, and by degrees inter- 
 fered in it very little himself. This, however, was 
 not the only advantage which I derived from my 
 new office. The junior surgeon, Mr. Gunning, 
 joined Lord Wellington's army in the Peninsula, 
 being attached to the staff of the commander-in- 
 chief as surgeon-iii-chief of the British forces. 
 There was an old law of the hospital (now abro- 
 gated) which enabled the Weekly Board to give 
 an unlimited leave of absence to any one of the 
 medical officers who was employed on military 
 service. This leave was granted to Mr. Gunning. 
 The governors at the same time appointed the 
 other assistant-surgeon, Mr. Robert Keate, and 
 myself to take charge of his patients in his 
 absence. This arrangement continued until the 
 year 1813, when, on the resignation of Mr. 
 Thomas Keate, his nephew was elected surgeon
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 77 
 
 in his place ; and from that time until Mr. 
 Gunning resumed his duties, about four years 
 afterwards, his patients were entirely under my 
 management. Thus I had the opportunity, at 
 an unusually early age, of acquiring a large ex- 
 perience in hospital practice, and to this cir- 
 cumstance my early professional success may 
 very much be attributed. Having at this time 
 no private practice, I was able to devote a great 
 deal of my time to my duties in the hospital. 
 During six months in the year I passed several 
 hours daily in the wards, taking notes of cases, 
 and communicating freely with the students. 
 During the other six months, the whole of the 
 time which I could spare from my employment 
 as a teacher of anatomy, was devoted to the 
 hospital also. The custom at St. George's, and 
 indeed at all the other metropolitan hospitals, 
 had hitherto been for the surgeons to go round 
 the wards only on two days in the week, not 
 attending otherwise, except when there were 
 operations to perform, or severe accidents which 
 made their assistance necessary, or on other spe- 
 cial occasions. Mr. Robert Keate and myself
 
 78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 were the first persons who adopted another mode 
 of proceeding. We were at our posts in the 
 hospital daily, and superintended everything; 
 and there was never an urgent case which we 
 did not visit in the evening, and not unfre- 
 quently at an early hour in the morning also. 
 This was of as much advantage to the students 
 as it was to the patients and ourselves, and the 
 effect of it was soon perceptible, in the increase 
 of zeal and diligence on their part, and in their 
 increasing numbers. After some time I ap- 
 pointed clinical clerks, one for the patients of 
 Mr. Home (or, as he became soon afterwards, 
 Sir Everard Home) and another for those who 
 were under my care as officiating for Mr. Gun- 
 ning. I also began to deliver clinical lectures ; 
 and I believe that these were the first lectures 
 of this kind which were ever delivered in a 
 London hospital. 
 
 I may take this opportunity of saying a few 
 words respecting my friend and colleague Mr. 
 Robert Keate. At the time of which I am 
 speaking, his uncle held the very high and im- 
 portant office of surgeon-general to the army,
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 79 
 
 and he himself was a deputy-inspector of mili- 
 tary hospitals, and assisted his uncle in his 
 official duties. He had been introduced by his 
 uncle to the Royal Family, with whom he was 
 a considerable favourite ; was surgeon to the 
 Queen, and to some of the royal dukes and 
 princesses. These various avocations for a con- 
 siderable time had interfered with his devoting 
 himself so much to the business of the hospital 
 as he would have done otherwise ; nevertheless 
 he had already obtained a very considerable 
 practical knowledge of his profession, and was 
 an excellent operator. We acted together as 
 colleagues until I resigned my office as surgeon 
 in the year 1840 ; and it is, I hope, to the credit 
 of both of us that, during the whole of those 
 thirty-two years, the most perfect harmony and 
 friendship always subsisted between us. We had 
 the most implicit confidence in each other ; and 
 not only did we never openly disagree, but I do not 
 believe that either of us entertained even unkind 
 thoughts as to the other. He was, and still is, 
 a perfect gentleman in every sense of the word ; 
 kind in his feelings; open, honest, and upright
 
 80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 in his conduct. His professional knowledge and 
 his general character made him a most useful 
 officer of the hospital : and, now that our game 
 has been played, it is with great satisfaction 
 that I look back to the long and disinterested 
 friendship that existed between us. 
 
 For a year or two before I was elected as- 
 sistant-surgeon at the hospital, Mr. Wilson had 
 been anxious that I should join with him in 
 delivering lectures on surgery, in the theatre in 
 Great Windmill Street, in addition to those de- 
 livered by him on anatomy. I had, however, 
 declined to do so, not feeling that either from 
 my knowledge or my position I was equal to the 
 task. On my becoming connected with the hos- 
 pital, however, the case was altered. I could now 
 refer to my own experience and my own practice, 
 and I had a place in my profession which I had 
 not previously. The consequence was that in 
 the October of 1808, Mr. Wilson and myself 
 began a course of surgical lectures. Mr. Wilson 
 delivered in each course about a dozen lectures, 
 the remainder, and of course the much greater 
 number, being delivered by myself. After the
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 81 
 
 second year Mr. Wilson retired from the sur- 
 gical lectures altogether, and from that time the 
 \vhole of these lectures were given" by myself, 
 until I resigned them to Mr. Babington and Mr. 
 Hawkins nearly twenty years afterwards. My 
 lectures were very well attended, not only by the 
 students of our own Anatomical School, but also 
 by those of Mr. Brookes's Anatomical School in 
 Blenheim Street. My stock of knowledge at 
 first must necessarily have been very limited, 
 and for many years my delivery was constrained 
 and awkward. Nevertheless my lectures were 
 very popular. The explanation of this I appre- 
 hend to be that whatever information I gave 
 was drawn from or confirmed by my own ob- 
 servation, and not taken from books, and that 
 I was really in earnest in my endeavours to 
 instruct my pupils. I took great pains in the 
 composition of my lectures, referring to and 
 analysing my manuscript notes of cases, and 
 comparing the results at which I had arrived 
 with those recorded by the last surgical writers. 
 At first I wrote about half-a-dozen lectures at 
 full length. But I soon found that it was
 
 82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 needless, and almost impossible, to pursue this 
 plan as to the entire course, and I therefore 
 contented myself with making pretty full notes, 
 and then abridging them to take with me into 
 the theatre. 
 
 Soon after I had begun to deliver surgical 
 lectures, Mr. Wilson, who had now obtained a 
 considerable share of private practice, proposed 
 that I should give a part of each anatomical 
 course also. This necessarily imposed on me a 
 considerable addition to my labours. At nine 
 or ten o'clock in the evening, after my day's 
 work was concluded, I had to arrange my lec- 
 tures for the following day, and this frequently 
 occupied me until three or four o'clock on the 
 following morning. On the days on which I 
 had no evening lecture, having a pretty large 
 acquaintance, I was very much engaged in dinner 
 society, which, however, I never allowed to in- 
 terfere with my more serious occupation, being 
 of temperate habits, and always returning home 
 at an early hour. 
 
 Besides my business at the hospital, the com- 
 position and delivery of my lectures, and the su-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 83 
 
 perintendence of the dissecting-room, I assisted 
 Mr. Home in his operations in private practice, 
 visited some of his patients when unforeseen 
 circumstances occurred, and he was out of the 
 way, and made some dissections with him and 
 Mr. Clift in comparative anatomy. Thus, al- 
 though I had nothing that deserved the name 
 of private practice, my life was one of great 
 occupation. I had, however, although not of a 
 robust constitution, considerable powers of en- 
 during fatigue. My health was sufficiently good, 
 and my prospects of advancement in my profes- 
 sion were as good as possible ; and I have no 
 doubt that the cheerful spirits which these gave 
 me enabled me to accomplish easily what it 
 would have been difficult for me to accomplish 
 otherwise. 
 
 It was somewhere about this time that Dr. 
 Bateman proposed to me to join Dr. Henderson 
 and himself in the publication of a periodical 
 medical work, under the title of the ' Medical 
 Annual Register/ which was to consist partly 
 of reviews of medical books, partly of miscel- 
 laneous intelligence connected with the medical 
 a2
 
 84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 sciences. I declined taking any active part in 
 the management of it, but promised to contri- 
 bute some articles, at the same time suggesting 
 that they should apply to Lawrence for his as- 
 sistance also. The work was not very popular, 
 and, after the appearance of a second volume, 
 died a natural death. My own contributions 
 were only to the first volume, and if my recol- 
 lection be accurate, were only three in number ; 
 namely, a review of Dr. Hooper's ' Anatomist's 
 Vade Mecum,'o? Cooper's 'Surgical Dictionary/ 
 and another of ' A Treatise on Lithotomy/ by 
 an Edinburgh surgeon of the name of Allan. 
 The truth is that, with the exception of Dr. 
 Bateman, who was older and more experienced 
 than the rest of us, there was no one among us 
 who had sufficient practical knowledge to be 
 qualified to do justice to such an undertaking, 
 and I have looked back at it ever since as a very 
 foolish concern, in which it would have been 
 much wiser for me never to have interfered. I 
 need scarcely add that I have never repeated 
 the mistake, or written another medical review, 
 unless an article on homoeopathy and other
 
 SIR BENJAMIN" BRODIE, BART. 85 
 
 quackeries, published in the f Quarterly Review ' 
 for December 1842, deserves that appellation. 
 
 Hitherto I had lived in lodgings at No. 24, 
 in Sackville Street, with very indifferent accom- 
 modation, for which, however, I paid 100/. 
 per annum ; but in the autumn of 1 809 I took 
 a house at 22 in the same street, my mother 
 having advanced me the money required for the 
 purchase of the lease, and furnishing it. Now, 
 for the first time, I placed my name on the 
 door, and began to think seriously of private 
 practice. I was able to accommodate three pri- 
 . vate pupils in my new residence, and this made 
 an addition to my income sufficient to make up 
 the difference between my expenses as a lodger 
 and as a housekeeper. In the following year, 
 in addition to a somewhat increasing income 
 from my surgical lectures, I obtained between 
 200Z. and 300/. from my private practice. 
 Thus, in one way or another, I became much at 
 ease as to my pecuniary circumstances, without 
 having occasion to make any further demands 
 on my mother. I was never once in debt, had 
 always some money in hand, and being thus
 
 86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 free from any great anxiety, I was able, in the 
 spring of 1810, to engage with some consider- 
 able interest in some physiological enquiries 
 on my own account, having been led to do so 
 chiefly by the perusal of those very remarkable 
 books, for which we are indebted to the genius 
 of Bichat. I had previously communicated a 
 paper to the Royal Society, which I now hold 
 to be of little, or rather of no value. The 
 council, however, thought it worthy of being 
 printed in the ' Philosophical Transactions/ On 
 the strength of it, Sir Joseph Banks agreed that 
 I should be proposed a Fellow of the Royal 
 Society, and my election took place without op- 
 position. During the winter of 1810 and 1811 
 I communicated to the Society two physiological 
 papers ; one, ' On the Influence of the Brain on 
 the Action of the Heart, and the Generation of 
 Animal Heat/ and the other, ' On the Effects 
 produced by certain Vegetable Poisons/ The 
 former of these was given as the Croonian Lec- 
 ture in November, 1810. They made a favour- 
 able impression at the time, so much so, that 
 the Council awarded me the Copley medal in
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 87 
 
 the autumn of 1811. At this time I was only 
 twenty-eight years of age. I was told that when 
 the question as to my having the medal was 
 discussed in the Council, the only objection 
 made to it was by one of the Councillors, who 
 observed that it had never before been given to 
 so young a man ; on which Dr. Wollaston ob- 
 served, that he thought if I deserved the medal, 
 that was only an additional reason for my having 
 it. Few events that have occurred to me have 
 gratified me so much as this. This was, on 
 the whole, a very happy period of my life. The 
 most distinguished Fellows of the Royal Society 
 whom I was accustomed frequently to meet at 
 Sir Joseph Banks's and elsewhere, treated me 
 with much consideration and kindness, and I 
 obtained a place in my profession which I could 
 not have obtained otherwise. Of course, I was 
 not exempt from those anxieties to which all 
 who depend on their own character and exer- 
 tions for their support and station in society 
 are liable in the early part of their career. 
 Every case that I was called on to attend was 
 magnified in my estimation as if my future
 
 OS AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 success had been involved in the result. But 
 such anxieties were transitory, and, on the whole, 
 interfered very little with the comfort of my 
 life. 
 
 About this time I became a member of a 
 society which was formed under the name of 
 ( The Animal Chemistry Club/ or ' A Society 
 for the Promotion of Animal Chemistry.' We 
 met at dinner alternately at the houses of 
 Mr. Home and Mr. Hatchett, once in three 
 months, our party consisting of Mr. Home, 
 Mr. Hatchett, Mr. (afterwards Sir Humphry) 
 Davy, Dr. Babington, Mr. William Brande, Mr. 
 Clift, Mr. Children, Dr. Warren, and myself. 
 They were very rational meetings, in which a 
 good deal of scientific discussion was mixed up 
 with lively and agreeable conversation. The 
 society continued to exist for ten or eleven 
 years, but during the latter part of the time, 
 some other members were added to it, and it 
 degenerated into a mere dinner club. Mr. W. 
 Brande and myself are at present the only sur- 
 viving members. We were, as young men, living 
 on terms of great intimacy, and our friendship
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 89 
 
 has continued unimpaired down to the present 
 time. 
 
 Mr. "W. Brande was the younger son of Mr. 
 Brande, who had accompanied Queen Charlotte 
 from Germany to England, and was apothe- 
 cary to the King and Queen and the Royal 
 Household while in' London. He had, as a boy, 
 attracted the notice of Mr. Hatchett, and from 
 him had acquired a taste for chemical pursuits. 
 He delivered lectures on chemistry, in connexion 
 with Mr. Wilson's Anatomical School in Great 
 Windmill Street ; and was, even at this early 
 period, an excellent lecturer, distinguished for 
 the clearness and method of his discourses , and 
 for the admirable manner in which he performed 
 the experimental part of his instruction. When 
 Sir Humphry Davy, after his marriage with 
 Mrs. Apreece, resigned the Professorship of 
 Chemistry at the Royal Institution, Brande was 
 appointed as his successor, and he continued to 
 hold this office between thirty and forty years. 
 He also succeeded Davy as one of the secre- 
 taries of the Royal Society, which office he 
 held for many years, being succeeded by Mr.
 
 90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 Children. In the early part of his career he 
 entered on some original investigations in che- 
 mistry, and pursued them with much success. 
 His friends have much regretted that he did not 
 continue to distinguish himself in this manner 
 afterwards. It is, however, easy to be explained. 
 He married Mr. Hatchett's youngest daughter. 
 He had a large family, and had abundance of 
 occupation in his endeavours to obtain the in- 
 come which, in his condition of life, was neces- 
 sary to maintain them. He held an office, which 
 he holds still, in the Royal Mint. He held an- 
 other office as director of the laboratory belong- 
 ing to the Society of Apothecaries. He deli- 
 vered an annual course of lectures, as Professor 
 of the Royal Institution, and he also delivered 
 a lecture three mornings in the week, during 
 the winter, in the laboratory of the Institu- 
 tion ; forming an extended course of chemistry, 
 which was attended by the medical students of 
 St. George's Hospital, and by many others, and 
 which made a constant exertion necessary to 
 keep him on a level with the increasing know- 
 ledge of the day. In fact, his life was one of
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 91 
 
 incessant labour, and he had no leisure for other 
 pursuits. If Davy or Faraday had had large 
 families to provide for, they would not have had 
 sufficient leisure, nor sufficient freedom from 
 anxiety, to distinguish themselves as they have 
 done in the line of original research. 
 
 The meetings of the Animal Chemistry Club, 
 while it was limited to its original members, 
 were to me very interesting and instructive. 
 Hatchett, who had now inherited a considerable 
 fortune on the death of his father, had ceased 
 to work in chemistry (in spite of the remon- 
 strance of Sir Joseph Banks, who used to say 
 to him in his rough way that ' he would find 
 being a gentleman of fortune was a confounded 
 bad trade '), but he had previously laid up a 
 large store of knoM'ledge, abounded in the 
 materials of conversation, and was a delightful 
 companion. Davy, who in general society was 
 generally over-anxious to display himself to ad- 
 vantage and thought too much of what others 
 would think of him, with us retained his ori- 
 ginal simplicity, and was quite at his ease. 
 Whatever was the subject of conversation, he
 
 92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 had something to offer and something to sug- 
 gest, which showed in how remarkable a degree 
 he combined within himself a highly poetical 
 imagination with a strict, cautious, and accurate 
 judgment. Babington, the intimate friend of 
 Davy, to whom he dedicated his 'Salmonia/ 
 with a good deal of scientific knowledge, was 
 full of the most kind and generous feelings, 
 and his conversation was enlivened by appro- 
 priate anecdotes, with a fund, I will not say of 
 wit, but of infinite humour. Home, besides bis 
 acquirements as a naturalist and comparative 
 anatomist, possessed a knowledge of the world 
 and of human nature which, displaying itself 
 every now and then, and without premeditation, 
 afforded much useful information to younger 
 men ; otherwise he was no great master of the 
 art of conversation, or at least not at all to be 
 compared in this respect to either Hatchett or 
 Davy. 
 
 I may take this opportunity of mentioning an- 
 other society to which I at this time belonged. 
 It was founded in the year 1793, by John 
 Hunter and Dr. Fordyce, under the name of
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 93 
 
 a ' Society for the Promotion of Medical and 
 Cliirurgical Knowledge/ It was originally com- 
 posed of nine members, with a provision that it 
 might be increased to twelve, but that it should 
 never exceed that number. When they were 
 so kind as to elect me into it, in 1808, Fordyce, 
 John Hunter, and Dr. John Hunter, three of 
 the original members, had been removed from 
 it by death. The existing members were Dr. 
 Baillie, Mr. Home, Dr. (afterwards Sir Gilbert) 
 Elane, Dr. John Clarke, Dr. Robertson Barclay 
 (a son of Dr. Robertson, the historian), Dr. 
 Wells, Mr. (afterwards Sir Patrick) Macgregor, 
 Mr. Wilson, Dr. David Pitcairn, and Dr. Lister. 
 The society had already published two volumes, 
 and another was being prepared for publication. 
 We met at dinner once in a month (except dur- 
 ing the summer) at Slaughter's coffee-house in 
 St. Martin's Lane. The papers communicated 
 were first read, and then discussed and corrected 
 after dinner. Dr. Wells, who acted as secretary, 
 was the most active member, and took a great 
 deal of trouble even in correcting the literary 
 composition of the papers. The third and last
 
 94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 volume of their transactions was published in 
 the year 1812, and contained one short paper of 
 very little value contributed by myself. From 
 this time the society continued to exist merely 
 as a dining club, Dr. Wells having resigned the 
 secretaryship, to which, though it had become 
 little more than a nominal office, I succeeded. 
 The meetings, however, were very regularly at- 
 tended, and were, to myself at least, very useful 
 and instructive. In the year 1817, Dr. Wells, 
 who had always been a person of delicate health, 
 became affected with a serious illness, which 
 after some months terminated fatally. Not long 
 before his death, he addressed, through me, a 
 letter to the Society, which I still possess, pro- 
 posing, as it was not probable that they would 
 ever publish another volume, that the Society 
 should be dissolved. I suspect that he was 
 apprehensive that, if it continued to exist, its 
 future volumes would not maintain the reputa- 
 tion of those which had preceded them. How- 
 ever that might be, the Society acted on his 
 suggestion, and on June 2, 1818, the formal 
 dissolution of it took place, it being agreed that
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 95 
 
 the book containing the minutes of their pro- 
 ceedings should remain in my hands. 
 
 Dr. Wells was one of the most remarkable 
 persons with whom it has been my lot to be 
 personally acquainted. He is too well known 
 by his writings, among which his ' Essay on 
 Dew ' deserves more especial notice, for it to be 
 worth while for me to speak of him as a philo- 
 sopher ; but I may venture to give some account 
 of him otherwise. He was never married, but 
 lived by himself, with (I believe) only a single 
 maid-servant, in a small house in Serjeant's 
 Inn, Fleet Street. Although he had paid great 
 attention to his profession, and had ample 
 opportunities of studying it as physician to 
 St. Thomas's Hospital, he had never more than 
 a very limited practice. For this, indeed, he 
 was in many respects very unfit: having dry 
 and, in general society, ungracious manners, 
 and being apt to take offence where no offence 
 was intended. Yet he had great kindness and 
 warmth of heart mixed up with these less 
 amiable qualities, and while he was greatly re- 
 spected by those who really knew him, he was
 
 96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 even beloved by the very few with whom he 
 was intimate. His autobiography, which is pre- 
 fixed to the posthumous edition of his works, 
 is very characteristic, and, when I read it, re- 
 minded me very much of that of David Hume, 
 to whom, indeed, as to the character of his 
 intellect, he bore a considerable resemblance, 
 however different he may have been from him 
 in some other respects. 
 
 In the course of the year 1812, I communi- 
 cated to the Royal Society two other papers : 
 one being a continuation of my paper on Poi- 
 sons ; the other containing an account of some 
 further experiments illustrating the influence of 
 the nervous system on the production of animal 
 heat. My former paper on this subject had 
 been very incomplete, inasmuch as I had made 
 no examination of the air expired with reference 
 to the consumption of oxygen and the genera- 
 tion of carbonic acid. In my second series of 
 experiments I endeavoured to supply this de- 
 ficiency. The experiments were made by means 
 of a very simple apparatus, which fully answered 
 the intended purpose, and were conducted with
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 97 
 
 the greatest care, the expired air being examined 
 by ray friend Brande. Although the conclusions 
 which I had ventured to draw from my first 
 series of experiments were certainly premature, 
 they were fully confirmed by my subsequent 
 observations. They have since been further 
 confirmed by those of Le Gallois, as I have 
 shown in the notes which are appended to the 
 republication of my physiological papers in the 
 year 1850. 
 
 During this time my private practice was 
 slowly increasing at the rate of about 200/. or 
 2507. annually. I continued to pursue my phy- 
 siological investigations, but was chiefly occupied 
 with the business of the hospital ; with taking 
 and arranging my notes of eases, and with add- 
 ing to my lectures on surgery whatever addi- 
 tional information I had acquired. 
 
 During the time of my being house surgeon of 
 the hospital, I had the opportunity of examining, 
 by dissection, a case of what has been called 
 ' spontaneous dislocation of the hip/ consequent 
 on disease of that joint. It very much excited 
 my interest at the time, and led me to speculate 
 
 H
 
 98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 on the pathological changes which occur in other 
 cases of disease of the joints. I read and studied 
 all the known works on the subject, but obtained 
 from them no satisfactory information. The 
 treatment of these diseases was, at this time, as 
 unscientific as possible. Different surgeons had 
 different nostrums, which they applied as it hap- 
 pened, without any definite rules as to their appli- 
 cation. It occurred to me that there was no de- 
 partment of surgery which more required further 
 investigation than this, or which admitted of 
 greater improvement. From the time of my being 
 elected assistant-surgeon to the hospital, I took 
 notes of almost every case of affection of the 
 joints which occurred among my own patients, 
 and of very many of those which were under the 
 care of the other surgeons. Besides the dissec- 
 tions which I obtained in the hospital, my ac- 
 quaintance with medical men afforded me the op- 
 portunity of making many dissections elsewhere. 
 For a long time I arrived at no results. All was 
 confusion. At the end of the first year I seemed 
 to be no wiser than I had been at the beginning ; 
 and. at the end of the second I knew little more
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 99 
 
 than at the end of the first. Still I persevered, 
 until at last I perceived some glimmering of light. 
 I had been especially anxious to make the ex- 
 amination of joints in which disease was in its 
 incipient stage. But the opportunities of doing 
 so could present themselves only where patients 
 thus affected had been the victims of other com- 
 plaints, and were comparatively rare. By con- 
 stantly looking for them, however, I obtained 
 many such opportunities at last, and then I was 
 enabled to understand many cases of disease in its 
 more advanced stage, which I never could have 
 understood otherwise. In -the year 1813 I had 
 made sufficient progress in these enquiries to ven- 
 ture to draw up a paper, which I communicated 
 to the Medical and Chirurgical Society under 
 the title of f Pathological Researches respecting 
 the Diseases of Joints/ This paper was printed 
 in the fifth volume of the ' Medico-Chirurgical 
 Transactions/ and was the foundation of the 
 volume which I published on the same subject 
 some years afterwards. This work has now gone 
 through five editions. In every succeeding edi- 
 tion I have made such alterations and additions
 
 100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 as were suggested to me by my increased ex- 
 perience ; my object being especially to make it 
 useful to practitioners whose business it is not 
 merely to understand the exact nature of diseases, 
 but also to cure them. I have reason to believe 
 that my labours have not been in vain, and that 
 a great number of limbs are now preserved which 
 would in former times have been amputated as 
 a matter of course. Still, I am well aware that 
 much yet remains to be done, and that it cannot 
 be otherwise than that, in the course of time, I 
 must be left behind by those who begin their 
 enquiries where mine have terminated. So, 
 however, it must be in all matters within the. 
 range of the physical sciences. Whatever we 
 may learn, there is something to be learned fur- 
 ther still ; and if this be the case as to chemistry 
 or physiology, much more must it be so as to so 
 difficult a science as Pathology, in the pursuit of 
 which we get little or no help from experiments, 
 and have to rely almost wholly on the observa- 
 tion of facts which present themselves as it were 
 incidentally. 
 
 In the year 18131 communicated a paper to
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 101 
 
 the Royal Society ' On the Influence of the Ner- 
 vous System on the Action of the Muscles in 
 general, and of the Heart in particular/ It was 
 in the form of the Croonian Lecture, which I 
 had been appointed to deliver by the President. 
 The doctrine of the schools on these subjects 
 at this time was that of Haller, namely, that the 
 generation of muscular irritability is independent 
 of the nervous system ; and that the blood cir- 
 culating through its cavities is the stimulus on 
 which the contraction of the heart immediately 
 depends. Some doubt had been thrown on the 
 correctness of the last of these opinions by the 
 observations of Le Gallois, who came to the 
 conclusion that the heart derives its force and 
 power of contraction from the spinal cord. It 
 had been shown by Bichat, and the fact had been 
 confirmed by my own experiments, that in 
 warm-blooded animals the heart continues to 
 act so as to maintain the circulation of the 
 venous or dark-coloured blood during a period 
 of two or three minutes after respiration has 
 ceased. In the investigation which formed the 
 subject of the Crooiiian Lecture, I found that
 
 102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 the heart, when suddenly and completely emptied 
 of blood, continued to act even for a longer time 
 than when it remained with its cavities distended 
 with dark-coloured blood after the cessation of 
 respiration; the contractions of the different parts 
 of it being as regular, as orderly, and as vigorous 
 when the circulation is still going on. From 
 this and other circumstances I was led, first, 
 to reject the hypothesis of Haller, and to refer 
 the contractions of the heart to the nervous in- 
 fluence supplied by the cardiac plexus of nerves, 
 and not to the stimulus of the blood in its cavi- 
 ties, and secondly, to apply the same explanation 
 to the movements of other involuntary muscles. 
 The Council of the Royal Society directed that 
 my paper should be printed in the 'Philoso- 
 phical Transactions/ On further consideration, 
 however, I was led to request that the printing 
 of it should be postponed, as. I felt that the sub- 
 ject required further consideration, and it stilj 
 remains as one of the unpublished papers in tho 
 archives of the Society. My other avocations 
 have prevented my pursuing these enquiries fur- 
 ther. But other physiologists, though not ex-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BROD1E, BAIIT. 103 
 
 actly on the same grounds, have arrived at the 
 same conclusions ; and the anatomical discovery 
 that the grey matter of the nervous system, in 
 which it is supposed that the nervous influence 
 is generated, exists in combination with the car- 
 diac nerves, sufficiently explains some of the 
 phenomena of which I was unable to give a 
 satisfactory explanation formerly.* 
 
 Daring the session of 1808-9, and the three 
 following winters, I had continued to deliver a 
 considerable part of the anatomical lectures in 
 conjunction with Mr. Wilson. In the spring of 
 1812, however, Mr. Wilson informed me that 
 his increasing practice as a surgeon made it con- 
 venient for him to give up his occupation as a 
 teacher of anatomy ; and he proposed to me that 
 I should take the anatomical school altogether 
 off his hands, giving him 7,OOOZ. for his ana- 
 tomical museum and buildings in Great Wind- 
 mill Street, including the house attached to 
 them, in which he resided, and which had 
 
 * The Council of the Royal Society have allowed Mr. C. 
 Hawkins to copy this paper, and it will be published in the 
 complete edition of the Author's Works.
 
 104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 formerly been the residence of William Hunter, 
 and then of his nephew Dr. Baillie. But I had 
 no money of my own at my disposal, and even 
 if my friends could and would have assisted me, 
 I had little disposition to lay myself under such 
 an obligation. I had at that time a very inti- 
 mate friend, Dr. Harrison, who, like many 
 others of my early friends, has long since been 
 no more (a very zealous person in the pursuit 
 of his profession and the sciences connected with 
 it), and he suggested that we might establish 
 ourselves conjointly as lecturers in anatomy 
 elsewhere. This we might very easily have done 
 and there is little doubt that we should have 
 succeeded in the speculation ; for Harrison was 
 very energetic in whatever he undertook, and I 
 had myself become very popular with the stu- 
 dents. In saying this I do not at all mean to 
 compare myself as a teacher of anatomy with 
 Mr. Wilson, who, in that capacity, was really 
 pre-eminent; but I had made my anatomical 
 instructions useful by applying them to the ex- 
 planation of surgical practice, and I had paid 
 more attention than Mr. Wilson had done to
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BROD1E, BART. 105 
 
 physiology, having on this subject a good deal 
 of original matter to communicate, founded on 
 my own observations. I had, however, good 
 reasons for not acceding to this proposal. It 
 would have been very ungracious towards Mr. 
 Wilson, who had always treated me with much 
 kindness, and such a step on my part would have 
 made it difficult for him to dispose of his inte- 
 rest in the Windmill Street School to any one 
 else ; and I had myself abundant occupation be- 
 sides afforded me in the performance of my du- 
 ties at the hospital and as a lecturer on surgery. 
 Having consulted Dr. Baillie and Sir Everard 
 Home on the subject, I found that their advice 
 corresponded with my own inclinations ; and I 
 therefore communicated to Mr. Wilson, first, 
 that I must decline the offer which he had made 
 me, and secondly, that I would not stand in the 
 way of his making the arrangement which he 
 wished to make with some other person, and 
 that I would willingly retire whenever he had 
 done so. The result was that Sir Charles Bell 
 purchased Mr. Wilson's museum, and took my 
 place as a lecturer on anatomy.
 
 106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 I had been engaged as a teacher of anatomy 
 for seven years, passing always a part of each 
 day in the dissecting-room. Thus I had become 
 very familiar with the subject, so that the im- 
 pressions made on my mind, and repeated over 
 and over again at a period of life when the me- 
 mory is in its greatest vigour, have never since 
 become erased. Even at the present day, after 
 the lapse of forty years, Iretain all the anatomical 
 knowledge which is required for the purposes of 
 professional practice; and I have little doubt 
 that if I were to return for a short time to the 
 labours of the dissecting-room, I should have 
 no difficulty in resuming my early duties as a 
 demonstrator of anatomy. I have, therefore, no- 
 thing to regret in having ceased to be an ana- 
 tomical teacher ; while I am at the same time 
 aware that if I had done otherwise I should not 
 have been able to obtain so extensive a know- 
 ledge of diseases and of surgical treatment as I 
 now possess. 
 
 During the two or three following years my 
 recollection furnishes me with very little which 
 is worthy of being recorded even in this egotis-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 107 
 
 tical memoir. My mode of life was uniform 
 enough. I was constant in my attendance at 
 the hospital, not only doing what was required 
 for the patients, but taking notes of and study- 
 ing their cases, attending to what little private 
 practice I had obtained, seeing from time to 
 time some of Sir Everard Home's patients when 
 he required assistance or was out of the way, 
 assisting him in dissections in comparative ana- 
 tomy, and reading some professional books, not 
 in any very systematic way, but for the most 
 part using them for the purpose of reference, 
 as the occasion required. At the same time, 
 though there was little variety in my pursuits, 
 my life was by no means monotonous. I had 
 the advantage of a good deal of agreeable society, 
 and in addition to those whom I have already 
 mentioned, had acquired some valuable friends. 
 Among these T may especially mention Sir 
 Thomas Plumer, who, when I first knew him, 
 held the office of Attorney- General, and after- 
 wards that of Vice-Chancellor and Master of the 
 Rolls. There was as much friendship between 
 us as there could be between a very young man
 
 108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 who was working his way upwards, and another 
 nearly thirty years more advanced in life ; and 
 from Jiim and his family I received the most 
 constant kindness and attention until the period 
 of his death, in the year 1823. 
 
 I am not certain whether it was in 1814 or 
 1815 that I first became acquainted with the 
 late Lord and Lady Holland. As I have al- 
 ready mentioned, Lord Holland's fatherhad been 
 my own father's friend and patron, to whom 
 lie was indebted for the only church prefer- 
 ment which he possessed. My brother-in- 
 law, Marsh, had been Lord Holland's tutor at 
 Christ Church, had afterwards travelled with 
 him on the Continent, and become from that 
 period his most intimate friend. It so happened 
 that Lord Holland had been admitted as a 
 Fellow of the Royal Society on the Thursday 
 after the anniversary on which I received the 
 Copley medal, and when the address made by 
 Sir Joseph Banks to me on that occasion was 
 read as a part of the minutes. It was, I sup- 
 pose, from this combination of circumstances 
 that I was afterwards invited to Holland House.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 109 
 
 By degrees I became a frequent visitor there, 
 and was on terms of much intimacy with Lord 
 Holland until he died, in 1840, and with Lady 
 Holland afterwards. I know not how it was that 
 they liked me at first so well as they did, for in 
 general society I was at this time, and for some 
 years afterwards, a shy and diffident young man, 
 contributing very little to conversation, and not 
 feeling myself at home among the politicians 
 and persons of rank who met at Holland House, 
 as I did among my friends of the Royal Society 
 and those of my own profession or of the law. 
 However, so it was ; and their friendship and 
 kindness was never interrupted. Lord Holland 
 was himself one of the kindest of human beings, 
 at the same time being a zealous politician, a 
 thorough Whig, a Liberal in the very best sense 
 of the word, and that not only in politics, but in 
 everything else. Not what used to be called a 
 democrat, but at the same time valuing others 
 more with reference to their general character, 
 talents, and acquirements, than to their rank 
 or station. He was an accomplished scholar, well 
 acquainted with general literature, delighting in
 
 110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 poetry, and of refined taste, but having little 
 or no acquaintance with science. I remember 
 dining at Rogers' s in company with Sydney 
 Smith, his brother Robert, and some others, 
 when a question arose as to who at that time 
 excelled most in conversation, and they all 
 agreed that it was Lord Holland. He was in- 
 deed in society a most agreeable person, full of 
 valuable information, which was enlivened by 
 appropriate anecdotes ; not claiming too large a 
 share of attention for himself; a good listener 
 as well as a good talker. He had also this ex- 
 cellent quality, that he never spoke ill-naturedly 
 of others; while he was continually heard to 
 say, when he thought that others erred a little 
 in this respect, ' Come, now, I think that you are 
 a little too hard on him/ He might sometimes 
 have indulged in some good-humoured sarcasm, 
 but he never went beyond this. Lady Holland 
 was a woman of strong sense, with considerable 
 knowledge of human nature; a zealous and active 
 friend, but with considerable prejudices. Some 
 held her to be capricious, but I have certainly 
 no cause to complain of her in this respect.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BROD1E, BART. Ill 
 
 Fortunately I had no favours to ask of her or 
 of any one else ; but during thirty years of inti- 
 mate acquaintance with her, I never knew her 
 miss an opportunity of showing me any small 
 mark of kindness in her power. At Holland 
 House I made some valuable acquaintances; 
 among whom I may especially mention Samuel 
 Rogers, Sydney Smith, and Allen. The latter 
 had originally travelled on the continent with 
 Lord and Lady Holland as their medical atten- 
 dant. When I knew him he was master of 
 Dulwich College, and resided with them as a 
 friend rather than in any other capacity. He 
 had formerly been a lecturer on physiology in 
 Edinburgh, but afterwards had devoted himself 
 almost entirely to general literature and history. 
 He was a considerable Anglo-Saxon scholar, this 
 being with him a favourite pursuit ; but he had 
 a vast knowledge on all subjects, and was a most 
 instructive companion. At Holland House, 
 also, I became acquainted with Lord Holland's 
 son Charles, now General Fox, and he has con- 
 tinued one of my very best friends down to the 
 present day. "Without his literary attainments
 
 112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 he has many of his father's qualities sincere, 
 open, generous with a character so transparent 
 that whoever knows him must know him tho- 
 roughly. 
 
 I had previously, although not apparently a 
 very strong person, enjoyed sufficiently good 
 health, and had been able to go through a good 
 deal of rather severe labour ; but in the autumn 
 of 1814 my health began to fail. I became dys- 
 peptic, and lost flesh, and altogether looked so 
 ill that many of my acquaintance believed that 
 I laboured under some serious organic disease. 
 I was told of a medical dinner-party in which 
 the question arose as to who would make the 
 next vacancy at St. George's Hospital, and they 
 all agreed that it would be myself. I attribute 
 my illness to unceasing occupation of mind and 
 body for a long period, and partly to having 
 been during ten years in London, never breath- 
 ing the air of the country for more than two or 
 three days at a time, and even then only on some 
 rare occasions. My indisposition was not suffi- 
 cient to prevent my attending to my profession 
 as usual; but it depressed my spirits, made
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 113 
 
 exertion difficult, and my life altogether weari- 
 some and uncomfortable. I continued to suffer 
 sometimes more, sometimes less until the 
 following autumn, when I went, accompanied by 
 my friend Brande, for a short time to the sea- 
 side. It was remarkable how much, and what 
 immediate refreshment this change of air and 
 freedom of labour afforded me. I returned to 
 London quite an altered person, and had only 
 an occasional recurrence of my former symptoms 
 during the following winter. 
 
 During the long war in which we were en- 
 gaged, with only a brief intermission, from 1793 
 to 1815, we had little or no intercourse with 
 scientific or professional men of other countries. 
 On the conclusion of the war, however, several 
 of our collaborateurs on the Continent visited 
 this country, with some of whom I became well 
 acquainted. Among these were Roux (who was 
 at that time surgeon to the Hopital de la Charite, 
 and who afterwards succeeded to the same office 
 in the Hotel Dieu, and was for many years the 
 principal surgeon of Paris), Orfila,andMagendie
 
 114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 and then Ekstrom of Stockholm, Wagner, and 
 others from Germany. There was a Milanese 
 professor, Assalini, who had been with Napoleon 
 in Egypt and Russia, was present at the burning 
 of Moscow, and used to give us some curious 
 details of what occurred in those expeditions. 
 Dupuytren was here only once, and that some 
 years afterwards, when he came to be present at 
 a marriage in the Rothschild family. Among 
 the men of science not immediately connected 
 with the medical profession, those whom I knew 
 best were Blainville and Berzelius. I saw Hum- 
 boldt only on two occasions, once at Sir Joseph 
 Bank's soiree, and once at the Royal Society. 
 On the last occasion I walked back with him to 
 the west end of the town from Somerset House, 
 and I remember that he talked without inter- 
 mission, displaying an immense store of know- 
 ledge, but passing from one subject to another, 
 often without there seeming to be any very due 
 connection between them. When I afterwards 
 read that very remarkable, but rather unread- 
 able production of his later years, ' Cosmos/ it 
 reminded me very forcibly of the conversation
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 115 
 
 I had with him, or rather which he had with me, 
 more than thirty years previously. 
 
 In what I am now writing I do not pretend 
 to give an account of my domestic life ; I must 
 not, however, omit to notice the most important 
 event belonging to it, and which must have ex- 
 ercised a great influence over my professional 
 life also, which occurred in the year 1816. Ser- 
 jeant Sellon, who had been a barrister of a good 
 deal of repute, and well known to lawyers as the 
 author of f Sellon's Practice/ a work much valued 
 by the legal profession, had been for some years 
 a friend of my elder brother, and through him 
 I became acquainted with the Serjeant's family. 
 His third daughter and myself became much at- 
 tached to each other ; and in the spring of the 
 year above mentioned she became my wife. She 
 was nineteen years of age, and I had not quite 
 completed my thirty-third year. At the time 
 at which I am now writing (1855), we have been 
 married nearly thirty-nine years, and our affec- 
 tion for each other has remained unaltered. 
 She has been an excellent wife to myself, and an 
 12
 
 116 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 excellent mother to our three surviving children. 
 That they have turned out such worthy members 
 of society, and have been a source of so much 
 happiness to ourselves, is to be attributed mainly 
 to the trouble which she took from the very 
 earliest period of their lives in training their 
 moral character, at a time when I was too much 
 engaged in my professional duties to be. able to 
 pay the necessary degree of attention to them 
 myself. What has occurred in my own family 
 confirms the opinion which I might, indeed, have 
 been led to form from what I have seen else- 
 where, that the characters of individuals depend 
 much more on the mother than on the father, 
 the mother having the chief management of 
 them during childhood, when the mind is more 
 pliant, and when permanent habits are more 
 easily established than is the case in after years. 
 It may be worth while to mention that, in the 
 year of my marriage, my professional income, 
 derived from professional fees and lectures, 
 amounted to 1,530Z. I had previously saved 
 sufficient money to re-furnish and paint my 
 house, and in other ways make it more fit than
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 117 
 
 it had been before for the reception of a bride. 
 I now, for the first time, had a carriage and a 
 pair of horses. In other respects, we made very 
 little addition to my former establishment. As 
 my wife had no fortune given her at the time 
 of our marriage, nor indeed any except what 
 had been settled on her after her father's and 
 mother's deaths, and as my profession entailed 
 some expenses on us, we were under the neces- 
 sity of being careful as to our mode of living. 
 My dear wife had no expensive habits, and we 
 managed to make both ends meet at the end of 
 the year. Still, I cannot but say that this was 
 a period of considerable anxiety, when I felt for 
 the first time that another individual as well as 
 myself, and probably children hereafter, had to 
 depend, not only on my professional character, 
 but also on my bodily health. Fortunately, in 
 the beginning of the following year there was a 
 more manifest increase of my practice than there 
 had ever been before. This kept my anxiety 
 within bounds; still it was considerable, and 
 was probably the cause of my having some re- 
 turn of the dyspeptic symptoms under which I
 
 118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 had laboured formerly, and which continued to 
 trouble me, from time to time, for the two or 
 three following years. 
 
 Although, between my increasing practice, 
 my duties at the hospital, and my lectures, my 
 time was considerably more occupied than for- 
 merly, I nevertheless found some leisure for the 
 cultivation of physiology. It was at this time 
 that I made the experiment of passing a liga- 
 ture round the choledoch duct, of which I after- 
 wards published an account in ' Branded Jour- 
 nal/ The conclusion at which I arrived was, 
 that the interruption of the flow of the bile into 
 the intestine stopped the formation of chyle. 
 The experiment was repeated by Herbert Mayo 
 in London, and Macartney in Dublin, with the 
 same result. Dr. Blundell, who was at that 
 time lecturing on Physiology at Guy's Hos- 
 pital, made the same experiment, not knowing 
 that I had made it previously, and he also ar- 
 rived at the same conclusion. When I after- 
 wards published my statement, Dr. Blundell 
 complained to Mr. Green that I had robbed 
 him of his discovery. This led to a comparison
 
 SIB BENJAMIN BROD1E, BART. 119 
 
 of dates, and it turned out that my first suc- 
 cessful experiment had been made just three 
 weeks before his. Since then Tiedemann and 
 Bernard have repeated the experiment, and, as 
 they declare, with a different result ; the latter 
 being of opinion that it is the secretion of the 
 pancreas, and not that of the liver, which is the 
 principal agent of chylification. M. Bernard 
 is led to believe that the disagreement between 
 his experiment and mine is to be explained by 
 my having included the duct of the pancreas 
 in the same ligature with the choledoch duct. 
 Other engagements have prevented my prose- 
 cuting the inquiry further. I am, however, far 
 from being convinced that Mayo, Macartney, 
 Blundell, and myself, have been in an error. I 
 do not find that the other experimentalists paid 
 attention to the contents of the intestine after 
 the flow of bile had been suspended. If they 
 had done so, they could not have failed to re- 
 mark the very striking difference which there is 
 in them where the bile does not flow into the 
 intestine, as compared with that which exists 
 where the flow of bile has not been interrupted.
 
 120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 In the two or three years which followed my 
 marriage I find little worth recording. My 
 eldest son was born in the winter of 1817. In 
 1818 we had another child, a little boy, who 
 was named Alexander, after my kind friend 
 Mr. Alexander Brodie, father of the present 
 Duchess of Gordon. Our little Alexander, how- 
 ever, was taken from us when he was about 
 a year old. Our daughter was born in the 
 following year, and our youngest son in the 
 autumn of 1821. We have had no other 
 children. 
 
 It was in the year 1817 or 1818 that I. first 
 formed a rather intimate acquaintance with the 
 late Sir William Knighton. In the year 1815 
 Sir William was in attendance on the Duke 
 
 of , in a very serious attack of illness which 
 
 terminated fatally. I was applied to for the 
 purpose of examining the body after death. 
 Some foolish or ill-disposed persons had per- 
 suaded the Duchess that Knighton had mis- 
 taken the nature of the Duke's complaint, and 
 that he had treated him improperly. The ex- 
 amination which I made proved that this charge 
 was altogether unfounded. After I had sent
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 121 
 
 my written report the Duchess asked me to call 
 upon her, and she and her sister cross-examined 
 me on the subject, being, as it appeared to me, 
 very ready to attribute blame to the physician. 
 I took his part, as it was my duty to do, and 
 believed that I had satisfied them that the 
 opinion which they had been led to form was 
 erroneous. Not a word ever passed between 
 Knighton and myself on the subject. But from 
 this time he became one of my warmest and 
 kindest friends. As his history is somewhat re- 
 markable, I think it worth while to take this 
 opportunity of giving some account of it. 
 
 He was of humble origin, and I believe that 
 he had originally practised for a short time as an 
 apothecary at Plymouth. While there, he mar- 
 ried the present Dowager Lady Knighton. She 
 was a Miss Hawker, and one of a family of great 
 respectability well known in Devonshire ; being 
 herself a very superior person both morally and 
 intellectually, and highly accomplished. After 
 his marriage Mr. Knighton went to Edinburgh, 
 studied there, and graduated as a physician. 
 He then came to London, took a house in 
 Maddox Street, and engaged in practice as a
 
 122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 physician and accoucheur. He had at first 
 few friends ; but he was ambitious and deter- 
 mined to succeed. He devoted himself wholly 
 to his profession, being always to be found, and 
 not at all mixing in general society. With 
 great natural sagacity, he had most agreeable 
 and engaging manners, and the result was that 
 in the course of a very few years he obtained a 
 very large practice. During the war he accom- 
 pianed the Marquis Wellesley when he went on 
 a temporary diplomatic mission to Spain. On 
 his return to England Lord Wellesley intro- 
 duced him to the Prince Regent, and soon after- 
 wards he was created a baronet. 
 
 According to common report, which I be- 
 lieve in this instance to have been well founded, 
 an accidental circumstance led to his being 
 more intimately acquainted with the Regent. 
 M'Mahon, who at that time held the office of 
 Keeper of the Privy Purse, died, and in his will 
 named Knighton as his executor. Among the 
 papers of the deceased were found some which 
 belonged to the Regent, which ought to have 
 been destroyed. Knighton at once took the
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 123 
 
 papers to the Regent, and from that time was 
 his friend, exercising a considerable influence 
 over him. I do not pretend to unravel the 
 mysteries of a court, but of this I feel assured, 
 that however much the production of the papers 
 might have contributed to it in the first in- 
 stance, he was indebted for the long continu- 
 ance of the Regent's favour more to his en- 
 gaging manners, his knowledge of the world, 
 his habits of business, and his usefulness, than 
 to anything else. When Sir Benjamin Bloom- 
 field (who after M'Mahon was Keeper of the 
 Privy Purse) was made a peer, and became our 
 minister at Stockholm, Knighton was appointed 
 to succeed him, and he retained his office until 
 the death of his master in 1830. 
 
 Knighton was a man of considerable natural 
 powers. He had great sagacity, a very clear 
 head, and an excellent judgment, seeing at once 
 the main points of the question before him, 
 divested of those which were of no real import- 
 ance. He was one of that very limited class of 
 persons who have great influence over the minds 
 of others. This may be attributed in part to
 
 124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 his engaging manners, but more to the circum- 
 stance that he entered, or seemed to enter, 
 into the views and interests of those for whom 
 he entertained a regard as cordially as if they 
 were his own. Having been originally imper- 
 fectly educated, he was deficient in some of the 
 qualities which would have fitted him for ge- 
 neral society, but these defects were more than 
 compensated by his ready insight into the cha- 
 racters of other men, and his knowledge of 
 the world and of what goes on in the world. 
 In his profession, with much practical know- 
 ledge, he had no scientific attainments. He 
 pursued it in the first instance with no other 
 object than that of obtaining a livelihood, and 
 afterwards with a too great anxiety to amass a 
 fortune. This was his principal failing, and in 
 the latter part of his life he acknowledged to 
 me that he was conscious that it had been so. 
 The existence of it in his case, as in that of 
 many others, is to be explained by the circum- 
 stance of his having passed his early years in 
 poverty, contending with difficulties, but with 
 very ambitious aspirations.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 125 
 
 When the Regent first proposed to him 
 that he should belong to his household, Lady 
 Knighton very much objected to his doing so. 
 At first, and for several years after his master 
 succeeded to the crown, everything went on 
 smoothly. He was very useful, and the King's 
 private affairs were managed in a way in which 
 they had never been managed previously. His 
 situation became very disagreeable, and, as he 
 informed me, he wished to resign his office. 
 But Lady Knighton showed him that, having 
 once undertaken it, he could not with propriety 
 do so, especially as he still retained the King's 
 confidence, as was shown by his relying on his 
 advice, and by his leaving him his executor, in 
 conjunction with the Duke of "Wellington. On 
 the whole, I am satisfied that he would have been 
 a happier person if he had never entered on this 
 new career. It is worthy of notice that he 
 studiously avoided leading his family to follow 
 his example. I do not believe that either Lady 
 Knighton, or his son, or daughters, were ever 
 presented at Court. After the death of the 
 King he mixed little with the world, leading a
 
 126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 very retired life at his residence in Hampshire. 
 He survived the King only six years, and Sir 
 Steven Hammick, Dr. Chambers, myself, and 
 one other friend, were the only persons, besides 
 his son, who attended his funeral at the ceme- 
 tery at Kensal Green. 
 
 In the year 1818 I experienced the loss of a 
 very good friend by the death of Sir Richard 
 Croft. He had married my first cousin, one of the 
 daughters of Dr. Denman, and was from an early 
 period of his life in large practice as an accou- 
 cheur among the aristocratic classes of society. 
 Unfortunately he was engaged to attend the 
 Princess Charlotte of Wales in her confinement. 
 The child was born dead, and the princess her- 
 self expired soon after her delivery. This disas- 
 trous result affected him deeply. Sir Eichard 
 was a man of acute feelings, a thorough gentle- 
 man, having a high sense of honour, and of a 
 kind and liberal disposition. In the early part 
 of my career he did me much service by recom- 
 mending me to his patients for those smaller 
 services for which they might reasonably apply 
 to a young practitioner. He was the younger
 
 SIE BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 127 
 
 son of an old family whose fortune had evapo- 
 rated. On the death of his elder brother, Sir 
 Herbert Croft, he succeeded to one of the oldest 
 baronetcies, and to nothing else. 
 
 During the first two or three years after our 
 marriage we continued to reside in the small 
 house in Sackville Street, in which I had re- 
 sided previously. In the beginning of the year 
 1819, however, I took a house of greater preten- 
 sions in Savile Row, and we remained in it until 
 we removed to a larger one in the same street, 
 which we still inhabit. As my income had been 
 steadily increasing, I felt myself to be guilty of 
 no imprudence in making this change, and the 
 event justified me in doing so, as my income in 
 1819 exceeded that of the previous year by more 
 than 1,000. This increase may be in part at- 
 tributed to the publication of the first edition of 
 my work on ' Diseases of the Joints/ which had 
 taken place in the previous year. Other circum- 
 stances, however, contributed to it. Although I 
 was no more than thirty-six years of age, my 
 name had been for several years before the public. 
 Sir Astley Cooper, who had succeeded to the
 
 128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 large practice of Mr. Cline and the smaller one 
 of Sir Everard Home, too confident of his posi- 
 tion, had already begun to lose some of the vast 
 reputation which he had previously enjoyed. 
 Some one else was wanted, and I was ready to 
 fill the vacant place. From this time my prac- 
 tice steadily increased, so that almost every year 
 made considerable additions to it. Hitherto my 
 income had been little more than sufficient to 
 meet my annual expenditure, but I now began 
 to lay by a considerable portion of it ; and find- 
 ing that I had the prospect of providing for my 
 family, and of acquiring in the course of no very 
 long time a moderate independence, I was re- 
 lieved of much of the anxiety which I had for- 
 merly experienced. 
 
 In the same year in which I entered my new 
 habitation, 1819, Lawrence having resigned the 
 Professorship of Comparative Anatomy and Phy- 
 siology at the College of Surgeons, the council 
 of the college appointed me to succeed him, and 
 I delivered my first course of lectures there in 
 the year following. I do not know whether I 
 acted quite wisely in undertaking that office.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 129 
 
 "With an increasing practice, my lectures on sur- 
 gery, and my duties at the hospital, I had an 
 abundance of occupation, and the having every 
 year to make a fresh course of lectures on sub- 
 jects on which I had not lecture^ previously was 
 an almost frightful addition to my labours. It 
 was only by giving up many hours which ought 
 to have been devoted to sleep that I was able 
 to fulfil my engagements, and even with this 
 sacrifice I had not the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that my lectures were such as I could have 
 wished them to be. On the other hand, in the 
 composition of my lectures I had to go to the 
 bottom of many things with which I was before 
 only superficially acquainted, and thus I ac- 
 quired much information which I should never 
 have possessed otherwise, and which has been a 
 source of interest to me ever since. I held 
 the professorship until the year 1823, and de- 
 livered four courses of lectures. The two first 
 courses related to the structure and physiology 
 of the organs of respiration and circulation. 
 In the third course I considered the organs 
 of digestion; the subject of the last course
 
 130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 being the anatomy and functions of the nervous 
 system. 
 
 I may take this opportunity of observing that 
 I have found few things to contribute more to 
 my own improvement than the composition of 
 my lectures, and the habit otherwise of record- 
 ing my knowledge and thoughts in writing. It 
 has enabled me to detect my own deficiencies, 
 to avoid hasty conclusions, and has taught me 
 to be less conceited of my own opinions than I 
 should have been otherwise. Another result has 
 been to give many things a permanent place in 
 my memory, the impressions of which, without 
 such artificial help, would have been evanescent. 
 In the early part cf my life I was accustomed 
 to make written notes of books which I read, 
 a few of which are still preserved among my 
 papers, and I refer to them with no small de- 
 gree of satisfaction as having rendered me an 
 important service. 
 
 It was in the year 1821, and while I held 
 the office of professor at the College of Surgeons, 
 that I was first called on to attend the King, 
 George IV., under the following circumstances.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 131 
 
 His Majesty had one of the common encysted 
 tumours which occur on the scalp, which was 
 large enough to be troublesome to him. He 
 showed it to Sir Everard Home, who advised 
 him to have it removed by an operation. The 
 King was anxious to undergo the operation. His 
 Majesty, however, expressed to Sir William 
 Knighton that he wished the operation to be 
 performed by myself, Sir Everard being, how- 
 ever, present, and Knighton was commissioned 
 to make this communication to me. I cannot 
 say that I derived any particular satisfaction 
 from it, as I found that I had already obtained 
 the patronage of the public, and was quite con- 
 tented with it. In the meanwhile, however, the 
 subject of the proposed operation was mentioned 
 to Lord Liverpool, who was then prime minister. 
 Lord Liverpool represented to the King that 
 it was a matter which might concern the pub- 
 lic as well as himself, and urged that nothing 
 should be done without Sir Astley (then Mr.) 
 Cooper being first consulted, and that, if an 
 operation was determined on, Sir Astley should 
 perform it. Sir Astley being at that time the 
 K 2
 
 132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 most conspicuous person in his profession, I can- 
 not doubt that Lord Liverpool's judgment was 
 quite correct. Accordingly, Sir Everard Home, 
 Sir Astley Cooper, and myself were summoned 
 to Windsor ; when, after examining the tumour, 
 we agreed that nothing but an operation could be 
 of any service, and that it should be performed 
 when the King returned to London. Mr. Cline 
 was consulted afterwards, who confirmed the 
 opinion which we had given. Eventually the 
 operation was performed by Sir Astley Cooper, 
 in the presence of Sir Everard Home, Mr. Cline 
 Sir William Knighton, the King's physicians, 
 Sir Henry Halford, Sir Mathew Tierney, and 
 myself, making indeed a very large assembly for 
 so small a matter. After this attendance, Cooper 
 was created a baronet, and Sir Everard Home, 
 was comforted by being appointed to the office 
 of surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, vacated by the 
 death of Mr. Thomas Keate, and by his son, 
 who was then a very young lieutenant in the 
 navy, being advanced rather prematurely t the 
 rank of commander. From this time, when any 
 surgical operation was required, the King, for
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 133 
 
 some years, was in the habit of applying to 
 Cooper; but on some special occasions I was 
 summoned to meet him in consultation, though 
 I held no actual appointment in the royal house- 
 hold until the year 1828, when, on Sir Astley 
 having been appointed Serjeant- Surgeon, I was 
 gazetted as surgeon to his Majesty's person in 
 his place. 
 
 In the year 1822, Mr. Griffiths, one of the 
 principal surgeons of St. George's Hospital, 
 having been compelled by ill-health to resign 
 his office, I was, as might have been anticipated, 
 elected without any opposition as his successor. 
 For many years after my first being appointed 
 assistant-surgeon, Sir Everard had very little 
 interfered with the management of his patients, 
 and from this circumstance, and from that of 
 my having had for many years the charge of 
 Mr. Gunning's patients during his absence in 
 the Peninsula, I had abundant opportunities of 
 improving myself in my profession. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1823 I sustained 
 a severe loss by the death of my affectionate
 
 134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 friend Sir Thomas Plumer, who sank at last 
 under the influence of a local disease, which had 
 tormented him for fourteen or fifteen years ; but 
 which, nevertheless, had not interfered with the 
 able and conscientious discharge of his duties 
 as Solicitor- General, Attorney- General, Vice- 
 Chancellor, and Master of the Rolls, which last 
 situation he occupied at the time of his death. 
 As I have already mentioned, I had been inti- 
 mately acquainted with him and his family for 
 eleven or twelve years, had been his frequent 
 visitor at Canons Park, where he resided du- 
 ring his vacations, and had received from him 
 such undeviating kindness and attention as 
 could not but be very acceptable to a young 
 man who was labouring to make his way in a 
 profession, without having as yet reaped the ad- 
 vantage of his labours. 
 
 In the autumn of the same year the medical 
 profession was deprived of one who for many 
 years had occupied perhaps the most conspicuous 
 place in it, and was indeed one of its brightest 
 ornaments, by the death of Dr. Baillie. I have 
 already mentioned that he had married my first
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 135 
 
 cousin, one of the daughters of Dr. Denman. 
 In consequence of this connection, I had the 
 opportunity of becoming well acquainted with 
 him. 
 
 The nephew of William Hunter, he had, on 
 his uncle's death, and at a very early period of 
 life, become established as the principal lecturer 
 in the then famous Anatomical School of Great 
 Windmill Street. He had left off teaching ana- 
 tomy two or three years before I began my stu- 
 dies in London, and after another year he had 
 resigned his office as physician to St. George's 
 Hospital, so that I had no opportunity of per- 
 sonally knowing him as a teacher either in one 
 place or in the other. That he was excellent as 
 a lecturer is proved by his large and constantly 
 increasing class, and by the high estimation in 
 which he was always held by those who had 
 been his pupils. In the beginning of the pre- 
 sent century, being then about forty years of 
 age, he had acquired a very considerable share 
 of private practice, which rapidly increased, un- 
 til it exceeded in extent not only that of any 
 one among his contemporaries, but probably of
 
 136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 any other physician who had preceded him since 
 the days of Radcliffe and Mead. His reputa- 
 tion was of the highest order, as it depended on 
 the opinion entertained of him by the members 
 of his own profession, who always looked up to 
 him as the fittest person to be consulted in cases 
 of difficulty or danger. Their preference of him 
 is to be attributed partly to his knowledge and 
 sagacity, especially in what related to the dia- 
 gnosis of disease, and partly to his general cha- 
 racter, which led him t be always liberal and 
 considerate as to others, at the same time that 
 he never seemed to be anxious about his own 
 reputation, or to take any trouble to obtain pe- 
 culiar credit for himself. He had also another 
 important qualification for the situation of a 
 consulting physician. He not only had a very 
 clear perception of the matter which was placed 
 before him, distinguishing at once that which 
 was essential from that which was merely inci- 
 dental; but his habit of lecturing had given 
 him a considerable command of language, which 
 enabled him to explain even a complicated case 
 in the way which was satisfactory to the patient
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 137 
 
 and his friends. In these explanations he never 
 gave his knowledge for more than it was worth, 
 nor pretended to know more than he knew in 
 reality; and this simple and straightforward 
 mode of proceeding was one reason why the 
 public reposed in him a degree of confidence 
 which those of more ambitious pretensions were 
 wholly unable to attain. 
 
 Being the only physician of that time who 
 had been engaged in teaching anatomy, the 
 public naturally, and very justly, considered 
 that he must have some knowledge of disease 
 which others, in his department of the profes- 
 sion, did not possess. But this was not all. 
 Bred up in W. Hunter's museum, of which the 
 anatomy of diseased structures formed an im- 
 portant part, and having had ample opportuni- 
 ties of investigating disease by dissections at St. 
 George's Hospital, he had become, after his 
 uncles, William and John Hunter, the most 
 distinguished pathologist of the day. His work 
 on ' Morbid Anatomy/ which he had published 
 while comparatively a young man, is still the 
 most valuable textbook on that subject that
 
 138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 exists. Very much has been added to the know- 
 ledge which it contains by the labours of later 
 pathologists, and the use of the achromatic mi- 
 croscope has added another kind of investiga- 
 tion to that which was adopted formerly : still, 
 it is perfect as far as it goes ; and the clearness, 
 conciseness, and simplicity of the style, and the 
 brief but accurate sketches of the symptoms 
 during life, which are appended to the account 
 of the appearances after death, have the effect 
 of rendering it a more important help to the 
 practitioner (whose object is to recognize the 
 diseases which come before him, and not merely 
 to study pathology as a curious science), than 
 most of the more elaborate treatises which have 
 been since published. 
 
 As a contributor to medical liter ature, Baillie's 
 reputation rests almost wholly on the work of 
 which I have now been speaking. He pub- 
 lished, however, a few rather interesting, but 
 not very important papers in the "Transactions 
 of a Society for the Improvement of Medical 
 and Chirurgical Knowledge/' It would be un- 
 fair to measure his reputation by some papers
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 139 
 
 which were published after his death, written 
 during his declining years, when he had outlived 
 the vigour of his intellect. 
 
 Baillie was not originally (as I apprehend) a 
 man of great physical powers. It seemed to 
 me that he found exertion, either of body or 
 mind, beyond a certain point always inconve- 
 nient and painful. As a young man, he had 
 studied anatomy and physiology, so as to make 
 himself thoroughly qualified for his office as a 
 teacher ; but he never went beyond this, nor 
 entered on any original investigation in either 
 of these departments of knowledge. When he 
 was fully engaged in private practice, his labours 
 were very arduous. He rose at six o'clock in 
 the morning, and was occupied until he break- 
 fasted at eight o'clock, in answering the letters 
 of his correspondents ; from that time he was 
 employed in seeing patients until six or seven 
 o'clock in the evening, when he returned home 
 to dinner. He had to make another round of 
 professional visits in the evening, and seldom 
 retired to rest much sooner than twelve o'clock. 
 These labours continued for several successive
 
 140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 years. At the same time, however, he allowed 
 himself a vacation daring the summer, which 
 gradually became prolonged from three weeks 
 to three or four months. Notwithstanding this 
 periodical retirement, he had always the appear- 
 ance of being overworked. He was nervous 
 and irritable, and while others looked, if not 
 with envy, with some sort of admiration at his 
 large practice, he complained of it as if it were 
 a great hardship, and I have no doubt felt it at 
 the time to be so. His professional brethren 
 had little sympathy with and smiled at these 
 complaints; yet they were well-founded, and I 
 suspect that he would have been a happier man, 
 and have lived longer, if he had had a smaller 
 amount of professional success. For some years 
 before he died he had limited his practice by 
 acting merely as a consulting physician with 
 other physicians or surgeons ; at the same time, 
 passing two days in the week in Windsor Castle, 
 taking his turn with the other physicians, who 
 were in attendance on King George III. during 
 the long period of his mental derangement. 
 But he did not make this change until both his
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 141 
 
 mind and body had suffered from the over-ex- 
 ertion of preceding years ; and no one who knew 
 him merely towards the close of his career could 
 form a right notion of what he had been for- 
 merly. He left to his son a sufficient, but not 
 a large fortune. He might have left a much 
 larger one if he had made it his object to do so. 
 But he had no desire to be rich, and was liberal 
 not only to his patients but to others, perform- 
 ing, as I have reason to believe, many acts of 
 charity and kindness. The irritability of tem- 
 per, to which I have already referred, led him 
 at times to say hasty and somewhat ungracious 
 things, for which he was always sorry, and apt 
 to worry himself afterwards. Mrs. Baillie was 
 a lady of great good sense, an excellent adviser, 
 and a great help to her husband in a variety of 
 ways. 
 
 In the year of which I am now speaking 
 (18.23) I had already obtained a considerable 
 private practice, my income from fees alone, in- 
 dependently of what was derived from my sur- 
 gical lectures and my pupils at the hospital, 
 amounting to 6500. From this time my
 
 142 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 practice went on for many years steadily in- 
 creasing ; there being only one year (after the 
 financial crisis of 1825-26) 'in which there was 
 any falling off,, and this not to any considerable 
 extent. It was now my object to devote myself 
 as much as possible to my profession, and to 
 take advantage of the favourable opinion of the 
 public, so that I might make a provision for 
 myself and my family. Accordingly, I never 
 absented myself from London for more than 
 three weeks in the summer, and sometimes not 
 at all. During the empty season, I engaged at 
 first a ready furnished house at Hampstead, and 
 afterwards had a permanent residence there, at 
 which my family remained, and where I dined 
 and slept, coming to London every morning 
 after an early breakfast. My receipts were such 
 that I was able every year to lay by a consider- 
 able sum of money, so that I had no further 
 anxiety as to the fate of my wife and children, 
 in regard to pecuniary matters, if I should be 
 taken from them. But I had anxieties of other 
 kinds. I had now a large share of operative 
 surgery : far more than fell to the lot of any
 
 SIR BEXJAMIX BRODIE, BART. 143 
 
 other individual in the metropolis. Sir Astley 
 Cooper's practice was beginning to decline, and 
 he finally quitted London for a considerable 
 time in the year 1828, and the greater number 
 of patients, who would otherwise have applied 
 to him, now resorted to myself. I was never 
 much attached to this department of my pro- 
 fession, which I considered as requiring far less 
 of intellectual accomplishments than the dia- 
 gnosis of disease and the treatment of it in other 
 ways. However, I could not venture to refuse 
 what was offered to me, and I hope that I did 
 justice to those who reposed confidence in me 
 by sparing neither time nor trouble, and by neg- 
 lecting nothing that could in any degree contri- 
 bute to bring a case in which I was engaged to 
 a successful termination. The only operation 
 that gave me any real concern was that of litho- 
 tomy. Among the affluent classes of society, 
 lithotomy is very rarely required for children, 
 and hence those who form the very great ma- 
 jority of patients in the hospital, form a very 
 small proportion in private practice. But litho- 
 tomy in adults is always dangerous, and among
 
 144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 what are called the higher classes of society it 
 is more dangerous than among the labouring 
 classes; as those belonging to the former are 
 apt to defer applying for relief to the last mo- 
 ment, when the extension of disease has made 
 them less fitted to undergo an operation than 
 they would have been at an earlier period. After 
 the year 1835, except in the hospital, I scarcely 
 ever had recourse to lithotomy at all, substitut- 
 ing for it that of lithotrity, of which my expe- 
 rience leads me to believe that, in the hands of 
 one who has taken the necessary pains to un- 
 derstand it, it is attended with less risk as to 
 life than almost any other of the capital opera- 
 tions of surgery. 
 
 At the period of which I am now speaking, a 
 great change had gradually taken place in the 
 medical staff of our hospital. Sir Everard Home 
 had resigned the office of surgeon, residing at 
 the house which belonged to him as surgeon of 
 Chelsea College. Mr. Gunning had retired 
 also, and become a resident in Paris. Mr. 
 Robert Keate was now the senior surgeon, 
 Jeffreys and Rose were the two junior surgeons,
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 145 
 
 that is, juniors to myself at the hospital, though 
 my seniors in years. The physicians were Dr. 
 Pearson, Dr. Nevinson, Dr. Chambers, and 
 Dr. Young. Of these, Dr. Nevinson was an 
 excellent practical physician, and had a vast 
 reputation among the members of his own pro- 
 fession. He might with the greatest ease have 
 succeeded to a very large private practice pro- 
 bably equal to that of Baillie himself. But this 
 formed no part of his ambition, and while he 
 devoted a very large portion of his time not 
 only to the in-patients, but also to the out- 
 patients of the hospital, he seemed to shrink 
 from the more lucrative engagements of his 
 profession. The same could not be said of Dr. 
 Pearson, who, however, never succeeded as a 
 practitioner, except to a very limited extent. 
 In fact, circumstances, combined with various 
 eccentricities, stood in his way, though he was 
 a person of considerable genius, and had ob- 
 tained a good deal of credit by some papers 
 published in the ' Philosophical Transactions/ 
 Young, one of the greatest philosophers of the 
 age, and indeed second to none but Davy, never 
 L
 
 146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 prospered as a physician. His biographer, Dr. 
 Peacock, has ascribed his failure to his being too 
 good for his profession, and to his being above 
 certain ignoble arts, which were, as he believed, 
 made use of by his competitors, and he has 
 availed himself of this opportunity of publishing 
 a very illiberal tirade against those who belong 
 to this division of the medical profession. No- 
 thing can be more unjust than the whole of Dr. 
 Peacock's observations on the subject. There 
 may be among physicians, as well as in other 
 professions, some individuals who acquire a re- 
 putation to which they have no claim, but my 
 experience justifies me in asserting that no phy- 
 sician acquires a large reputation, or retains 
 what may be called an extensive practice, who 
 is really unworthy of it. The public are, on the 
 whole, pretty good judges in a matter in which 
 they are so much interested, and if by any acci- 
 dent they have been led to give their confidence 
 to a wrong person, they are seldom long in dis- 
 covering and correcting their mistake. With 
 regard to Dr. Young, the truth is that either 
 his mind, from it having been so long trained
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 147 
 
 by the study of the more exact sciences, was not 
 fitted for the profession which he had chosen, or 
 that it was so much engrossed by other, and to 
 him more interesting pursuits, that he never 
 bestowed on it that constant and patient atten- 
 tion without which no one can be a great phy- 
 sician, any more than he can be a great surgeon, 
 or a great lawyer, or a great statesman. The 
 students at th3 hospital complained that they 
 learned nothing from him. I never could dis- 
 cern that he kept any written notes of cases, 
 and I doubt whether he ever thought of his 
 cases in the hospital after he had left the wards. 
 His medical writings were little more than 
 compilations from books, with no indications of 
 original research. I offer these observations as 
 a matter of justice to others, and not in de- 
 preciation of Dr. Young, for whom I had a 
 great personal regard, whose vast and varied 
 attainments out of his profession, and whose 
 great original genius displayed in other ways, 
 place him in the foremost rank of those whose 
 names adorn the annals of our country. Dr. 
 Peacock mentions as a proof of his superiority 
 
 L2
 
 148 . AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 as a physician, that the list of his hospital pa- 
 tients presented a larger proportion of cures 
 than that of any of his colleagues. I doubt not 
 that the statement is true, but the conclusion 
 from it is wrong. Hospital patients as well as 
 private patients have their preferences, and 
 those who labour under dangerous diseases will 
 take some trouble to be admitted under the 
 care of the physician or surgeon in whom they 
 repose the greatest confidence; while those 
 whose ailments are less important are contented 
 to take their chance of being admitted under 
 one person or under another. Moreover, many 
 patients are sent to a hospital by private prac- 
 titioners, and it is no matter of wonder that 
 those who, if they themselves laboured under 
 severe illness, would consult not Young, but 
 Chambers or Nevinson, showed the same pre- 
 ference as to poor persons in whom they were 
 interested. 
 
 Of my other colleagues whose names I have 
 mentioned, Dr. Chambers was at that time but 
 little known to the general public. But he was 
 assiduous in his attentions to the hospital, and
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 149 
 
 laying up that store of experience which after- 
 wards enabled him to attain the highest position 
 in his profession. He had great natural sa- 
 gacity, and a clearness of perception and judg- 
 ment which enabled him at once to see the im- 
 portant part of whatever subject was placed be- 
 fore him, discarding all irrelevant matter. He 
 had other and, I may say, still higher qualities, 
 which caused him to be very generally popular. 
 He was a gentleman in the best sense of the 
 word : honourable in his dealings with others ; 
 kind and affectionate to his friends ; using no 
 mean arts to enhance his own reputation or de- 
 preciate that of others. To this may be added 
 that he was an accomplished scholar, and 
 having extensive literary attainments. I owe 
 much to the long intimacy which existed be- 
 tween us, and which terminated only with his 
 death. Rose and Jeffreys, though, as I have 
 already stated, my seniors in age, were my 
 juniors in the hospital. Their career was short ; 
 the former being taken from us in the year 
 1829, and the latter in a year or two afterwards. 
 Although I had been previously consulted by
 
 150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 the King (George IV.), it was only on some 
 rare occasions. In the spring of 1830 some 
 symptoms under which His Majesty had long 
 laboured, arising from disease in the semilunar 
 valves of the aorta, became much aggravated, 
 and thus commenced the illness which termi- 
 nated in his death some months afterwards, and 
 during which he was attended by his physicians, 
 Sir Henry Halford and Sir Matthew Tierney. 
 It was early in May that Sir William Kuighton 
 called on me one forenoon, and said, ' I have 
 the King's commands that you should accom- 
 pany me immediately to Windsor. They have 
 got into a difficulty, and you must come and 
 see if you can help them out of it/ On my 
 arrival I found that the King's lower limbs were 
 dropsical and enormously swollen, and that they 
 had been scarified with a lancet, the consequence 
 of which was that the swelling was not at all 
 relieved, and that they were highly inflamed 
 and in danger of gangrene ; a further delay of 
 twenty -four hours would probably have placed 
 him beyond the hope of recovery from this local 
 mischief. I at once made a good many punc-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 151 
 
 tures with a round needle of the size of that 
 which is known by the name of a worsted- 
 needle. This produced an immense discharge 
 of fluid ; and the success of the punctures and 
 of the other treatment which was continued 
 with it was complete. In the course of a fort- 
 night not only were the limbs free from inflam- 
 mation, and reduced to their natural size, but 
 the state of his chest was so much improved 
 that, instead of being scarcely able to breathe 
 except he was in a sitting posture, he could 
 throw himself on his bed and sleep in a hori- 
 zontal posture with no other support than a 
 pillow under his head. His Majesty was not 
 only sensible of the relief which he thus ob- 
 tained, but full of expressions of gratitude for 
 what I had done for him. After the first three 
 weeks all that I had been especially required to 
 do was accomplished. He would not, however, 
 allow me to discontinue my attendance on him. 
 My habit was to go to Windsor every evening 
 after an early dinner, sleep in the castle, and 
 return to London, after a very early breakfast, 
 in the morning. I generally went to the King's
 
 152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 apartments about six o'clock in the morning, 
 and sat by his bedside for one or two hours be- 
 fore my departure, during which he conversed 
 on various subjects, not unfrequently speculating 
 on his own condition and prospects. In his 
 more sanguine momentshis mind would revert to 
 the cottage which he had built at Windsor Park, 
 and he expressed the pleasure which it would 
 afford him to return to this his favourite retreat, 
 as if he had found the comparatively retired 
 life which he led there much more suited to 
 his taste than the splendour of Windsor Castle. 
 The impression, made on my mind by the very 
 limited observations which I was able to make 
 on these occasions, was that the King would 
 have been a happier and a better man if it had 
 been his lot to be nothing more than a simple 
 country gentleman, instead of being in the ex- 
 alted situation which he inherited. If William 
 IV. retained his simplicity of character, and his 
 freedom from selfishness, it was because he as- 
 cended the throne at a late period of life, having 
 had no previous expectation that he would ever 
 be thus elevated.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 153 
 
 I never attended King William IV. profes- 
 sionally. But I saw him occasionally, when I 
 was visiting the Princess Louise (Queen Ade- 
 laide's niece, who was brought over from Ger- 
 many for the purpose of consulting Sir Astley 
 Cooper and myself), and at some other times. 
 It was, I suppose, from the report made to him 
 of his brother's sentiments towards me, that I 
 found him always most kind and gracious. I 
 have in my possession a letter from Sir Matthew 
 Tierney, giving me an account of a conversation 
 in which the King expressed very strongly his 
 favourable opinion of me, and declared it to be 
 his intention that, if a vacancy occurred in the 
 office of Serjeant-Surgeon, I should have the 
 appointment. He acted on this intention two 
 years afterwards, when I succeeded Sir Everard 
 Home, who had held that office previously. 
 
 The office of Serjeant- Surgeon is of very an- 
 cient date, and it has generally been confined to 
 those who have been previously engaged in the 
 service of the royal family. It is held under 
 a patent during the life of the patentee, with a 
 moderate salary attached to it ; and hence it is
 
 154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 that, as I was originally Serjeant- Surgeon to 
 King William, I am now Serjeant- Surgeon to 
 Queen Victoria. Formerly there were some pri- 
 vileges attached to the office, but an alteration 
 in the constitution of the College of Surgeons 
 having been made by charter in the year 1843, 
 the reason for maintaining them ceased to exist, 
 and by my own suggestion they were discon- 
 tinued. 
 
 I have already mentioned that I began the 
 delivery of surgical lectures in the autumn of 
 the year 1808. I continued to deliver them in 
 Mr. Wilson's anatomical theatre until I had re- 
 tired from the anatomical lectures. I then en- 
 gaged a house in Great Windmill Street, in which 
 I constructed a theatre for my lectures, reserv- 
 ing the rest of the house for the residence of a 
 porter, and for a museum consisting of prepara- 
 tions illustrative of surgical pathology. With 
 regard to the latter, 1 was at first contented with 
 the preservation of such specimens as I was able 
 to prepare with my own hands ; but as I ob- 
 tained an increase of income with an increase of
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 155 
 
 occupation, I engaged the services of Dr. James 
 Somerville as my assistant, and thus, in the 
 course of a few years, I became possessed of a 
 collection of preparations which was admirably 
 adapted for the intended purpose of illustrating 
 my lectures. I continued to lecture in my Wind- 
 mill Street theatre until the year 1829, and then, 
 in compliance with the wishes of my colleagues, 
 I transferred my lectures to the theatre of St. 
 George's Hospital, at the same time presenting 
 my pathological museum to the governors of 
 that institution for the use of the Medical School. 
 It has been gratifying to me to find that not 
 only my original preparations have been care- 
 fully preserved, but' that large additions have 
 been made to them, so that the Pathological 
 Museum of St. George's Hospital, at the time 
 at which I am now writing, is one of the most 
 valuable and useful collections of the kind in the 
 metropolis. 
 
 For many years my lectures formed not only 
 a very useful, but a very interesting addition to 
 my employments. As, however, I became more 
 engaged with private practice, I found the de-
 
 156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 livery of them three evenings of the week (and 
 always more frequently towards the end of the 
 course) to be very inconvenient. I often had 
 scarcely time to eat a hasty dinner before I pro- 
 ceeded to the lecture-room ; and then, almost 
 immediately after my lecture was concluded, had 
 to visit patients who required a second visit du- 
 ring the twenty-four hours, or whom I had been 
 prevented from visiting in the early part of the 
 day. Thus I was unable to begin answering the 
 letters of my correspondents, who were always 
 pretty numerous, until a late hour in the even- 
 ing ; and was generally employed, with little in- 
 termission, from half-past eight in the morning 
 until midnight, besides having not unfrequently 
 to make journeys into the country, which occu- 
 pied a considerable portion of the night. Being 
 thus pressed, I was desirous of retiring from my 
 duties as a lecturer as soon as I had the oppor- 
 tunity of doing so. That opportunity, however, 
 did not occur until the year 1830, when I was 
 enabled to give up my class to my junior col- 
 leagues at the hospital, Mr. Csesar Hawkins 
 and Mr. George Babington.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 157 
 
 Although I ceased to deliver a systematic 
 course of surgical lectures, I felt that the stu- 
 dents of the hospital had just claims on me for 
 instruction ; and in addition to the explanation 
 which I was always in the habit of giving them 
 at the bedside of the patients, I continued once 
 in a week to deliver clinical lectures in the early 
 part of the day, during a great part of the year ; 
 and probably, with my increased professional 
 experience, was thus able to afford them a greater 
 amount of useful practical information than I 
 should have done if I had confined myself to 
 lectures of the same description as those which 
 I had delivered formerly. 
 
 It was in the year 1822 that I published a 
 second edition of my treatise on the Diseases of 
 the Joints. The copies were soon exhausted, 
 and the work was for many years out of print. 
 A third edition, which was, I hope, much im- 
 proved, was published in the year 1 834, and two 
 editions have been published since. In the year 
 1832 I published my lectures on the Diseases 
 of the Urinary Organs. There was no very 
 practical work on the subject previously, and it
 
 158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 has now reached a fourth edition. My Lectures 
 illustrative of Local Nervous Diseases were pub- 
 lished in 1837. They formed a thin volume, 
 but I believe that I am not wrong in stating that 
 none of my publications have been really more 
 useful to the world than this, preventing a multi- 
 tude of mistakes which surgeons were apt to 
 make in confounding mere neuralgic affections 
 with more serious maladies. These lectures 
 have now been for several years out of print, it 
 being my intention, if I live long enough, to re- 
 publish them, with some others, at some future 
 period. Though not belonging to this period of 
 my life, I may here mention that in the year 
 1847 I published another volume of miscellane- 
 ous ' Lectures illustrative of various Subjects in 
 Pathology and Surgery/ Besides these, I com- 
 municated various papers on Injuries of the 
 Brain, Injuries of the Spinal Cord, and other 
 subjects, to the Royal Medical and Chirurgical 
 Society, which have appeared at various times 
 in the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. 
 
 I have formerly referred to my having the ap-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 159 
 
 pointment of Serjeant- Surgeon conferred on me 
 by his late Majesty. This was on the death of 
 Sir Everard Home, in the year 1832. 
 
 Sir Everard had for a long series of years oc- 
 cupied a very prominent place in his profession. 
 No account of him has ever been given to the 
 world, and a brief record of what I know respect- 
 ing him may not be unacceptable to those who 
 may think it worth while to peruse what I am 
 now writing. 
 
 He was one of an old Scotch family, and was 
 rather proud of a genealogy, the details of which, 
 if I ever knew them, have passed out of my re- 
 collection. He had two brothers, one of whom 
 I have seen, a colonel in the service of the East 
 India Company, and the other a painter, who 
 practised his profession (chiefly in painting por- 
 traits) with great success in Calcutta. One of 
 his sisters was married to John Hunter, another 
 to Mylne, an architect and engineer of great 
 distinction, one of whose works was the bridge 
 over the Thames at Blackfriars. Home was 
 educated at Westminster School, and had been 
 elected from the college there to an exhibition
 
 160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 at Cambridge. At this time John Hunter had 
 proposed to his young brother-in-law to have 
 him educated to his own profession, and by the 
 advice of the head master of the school he gave 
 up his exhibition at the University in order that 
 he might at once avail himself of John Hunter's 
 offer. He studied anatomy at first under Wil- 
 liam Hunter, and if I am not mistaken, resided 
 for some time in his house, and assisted him by 
 teaching the students in the dissecting-room. 
 Before his education was well-nigh completed, 
 there was some kind of disagreement between 
 him and John Hunter, which led to his entering 
 the army as an assistant- surgeon. In this capa- 
 city he was sent to the West Indies. After some 
 time he became reconciled to his brother-in-law, 
 the process of reconciliation having been pro- 
 moted by his sending him some specimens of 
 natural history, which were not then so easily 
 obtained as they are at present. On his return 
 to England he resided for some years in John 
 Hunter's house, where he assisted him in his 
 scientific researches, and at the same time taught 
 anatomy to a limited number of pupils in a pri-
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 161 
 
 vate dissecting-room. One of these pupils was 
 afterwards John Thomson, who when the Whigs 
 came into office with the Grenville party in 1806 
 was made by them professor of military surgery 
 in Edinburgh. Some time before John Hun- 
 ter's death, Home was elected assistant-surgeon 
 to St. George's Hospital ; and when that event 
 occurred in 1793, he succeeded Hunter as sur- 
 geon to that institution. 
 
 On the resignation of Mr. Charles Hawkins, 
 he became serjeant-surgeon to the King (George 
 III.), with whom, however, he never had any 
 personal communication. In the year 1812 he 
 was created a baronet. The title is now extinct, 
 his elder son, a captain in the navy, having died 
 in Australia unmarried, and his other son having 
 died two or three years before. 
 
 He retained the office of surgeon to St. 
 George's Hospital until the year 1827. On the 
 death of Mr. Keate in 1821, he was appointed 
 surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, where he had an 
 official residence, in which he passed the last 
 few years of his life. 
 
 Sir Everard Home had some very considerable 
 M
 
 162 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 qualities. He had great perseverance, never 
 wasted his time, and whatever special matter he 
 had in hand, would return to his occupation in 
 every interval of leisure from his ordinary pur- 
 suits. He had great sagacity, and was never 
 deterred from any undertaking which he had 
 once begun by the difficulties which he met 
 with. What I said of him in my Hunterian 
 Oration in the year 1837, I believe to present 
 a just view of his professional character : 'He 
 was a great practical surgeon. His mind went 
 directly to the leading points of the case before 
 him, disregarding all those minor points by 
 which minds of smaller capacity are perplexed 
 and misled. Hence his views of disease were 
 clear, and such as were easily communicated to 
 his pupils ; and his practice was simple and de- 
 cided. He never shrank from difficulties, but, 
 on the contrary, seemed to have pleasure in 
 meeting them and overcoming them ; and I am 
 satisfied that to this one of his qualities many 
 of his patients were indebted for their lives. 
 Much valuable information may be found in his 
 surgical works, and his observations on Ulcers
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 163 
 
 and on Diseases of the Prostate Gland may be 
 perused with advantage by the best-educated 
 surgeons of the present day/ 
 
 Having been educated in John Hunter's Mu- 
 seum, he was at the earliest period of his pro- 
 fessional life initiated in the pursuit of com- 
 parative anatomy, and he never relinquished it 
 even during those years in which he was most 
 occupied with his practice as a surgeon. This 
 led to his associating on terms of the greatest 
 intimacy with Sir Joseph Banks (over whom he 
 had great influence), and others of that constel- 
 lation of great men who were at that time orna- 
 ments of the Royal Society. His early papers 
 on Anatomy, published in the 'Philosophical 
 Transactions/ are of great and acknowledged 
 value. But, unfortunately for his reputation, 
 his ambition rather increased than diminished, 
 while his mental powers were gradually declining 
 under the influence of gout and increasing years. 
 In his latter days he had an overweening desire 
 to appear before the world as a discoverer ; and 
 his friends in the Council of the Royal Society 
 too readily admitted whatever he offered them 
 
 H2
 
 164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 into the Society's Transactions ; and the result 
 has been, that many of his later communica- 
 tions are of such a nature that his best friends 
 found reason to regret that they were published. 
 Some years before he died, he got great dis- 
 credit from having destroyed a considerable por- 
 tion of John Hunter's manuscripts, which had 
 come into his possession as one of Hunter's ex- 
 ecutors. This act was equally unjustifiable and 
 foolish. It was unjustifiable, because the manu- 
 scripts should have been considered as belong- 
 ing to the Museum, which Parliament had pur- 
 chased ; and it was foolish, because it has led 
 to the notion that he had made use of John 
 Hunter's observations for his own purposes, 
 much more than was really the case. I had 
 frequent opportunities of seeing these papers 
 during nine or ten years in which I was accus- 
 tomed, more or less, conjointly with Clift, to 
 assist him in his dissections. They consisted of 
 rough notes on the anatomy of animals, which 
 must have been useful to Hunter himself, and 
 which would, I doubt not, have afforded help to 
 Mr. Owen in completing the Catalogue of the
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 165 
 
 Museum ; but they were not such as could be 
 used with much advantage by another person. 
 In pursuing his own investigations Home some- 
 times referred to them, but I must say that 
 while I was connected with him I never knew 
 an instance in which he did not scrupulously 
 acknowledge whatever he took from them, and 
 do justice to his illustrious predecessor. Unhap- 
 pily, he was led afterwards to deviate from this 
 right course, and in his later publications I re- 
 cognize some things which he has given as the 
 result of his own observation, though they were 
 really taken from Hunter's notes and drawings. 
 One of these is a paper on the progressive 
 motion of animals, and another a series of engra- 
 vings representing the convolutions of the intes- 
 tinal canal, and neither of them of much scien- 
 tific value. When the Duke of Cumberland had 
 been wounded by Sellis in the attempt to assas- 
 sinate him, he attended the Duke in Carlton 
 House. This circumstance first introduced him 
 to the Prince Regent. The Prince found his 
 society agreeable, and used to invite him fre- 
 quently to dinner, treating him with much 
 familiarity.
 
 166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 In the year 1834 the King was pleased to 
 elevate me to the rank of a baronet. I cannot 
 say that this had ever been any great object of 
 ambition with me, yet from the way it was done 
 I could not but feel gratified by the honour 
 conferred on me. I have in my possession a 
 letter from my friend General Sir Charles 
 Thornton, who was one of his Majesty's equer- 
 ries, stating that a person who was much in 
 King William's confidence (I conclude it was 
 Sir Herbert Taylor) had informed him that the 
 King had said to him that it was his intention 
 to make me a baronet, though not quite imme- 
 diately. It was one or two years afterwards, 
 when Lord Grey was quitting his office as prime 
 minister, being succeeded by Lord Melbourne, 
 that Lord Brougham said to me, ' You ought to 
 be a baronet, and I know that Lord Grey in- 
 tends to speak to the King on the subject, though 
 it has escaped his memory to do so/ Afc that 
 time my income, derived from my savings, and 
 independent of my practice, did not amount to 
 more than about 2500 or 2000 per annum j 
 and I thought that the being a baronet would
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 167 
 
 not add very greatly to my own importance, 
 while it might, in the event of my death, rather 
 hamper my elder son. I expressed this to Lord 
 Brougham, and said I should prefer to wait 
 until I had acquired more landed property, and 
 such as any one having anything in the shape of 
 hereditary rank ought to be able to bequeath to 
 his family. Being, however, at the moment 
 pressed for time, I added that I would speak to 
 him again on the subject. When I saw him on 
 the following day, I was about to repeat my 
 former observations, when he interrupted me by 
 saying, ' It is too late now to think about it 
 Lord Melbourne applied to the King yesterday, 
 who immediately assented, and the thing is set- 
 tled ; ' and so a baronet I became. This change 
 in my condition, however really unimportant in 
 itself, and however small in the eyes of mere 
 aristocratic persons, considerably affected my 
 views and plans as to the future. Prosperous 
 as I was in my profession, I had always felt that 
 I was overworked, and that what I gained in 
 income was counterbalanced by the loss of com- 
 fort. It had been my dream (it would, I doubt
 
 168 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 not, have proved only a dream) that I would, 
 when I had made some further provision for my 
 family, retire from professional practice, and re- 
 sume my former pursuits in physiology. But 
 now the case was altered. An hereditary rank, 
 however small, without some independent for- 
 tune, is really an incumbrance, and I considered 
 it rather as a duty to those who were to come 
 after me not to leave them in this situation. 
 Thus I was led to persevere in my former course ; 
 and it was not until three or four years after- 
 wards that, by affording myself a long vacation 
 during the summer and autumn, I obtained any 
 considerable relaxation from my labours. 
 
 In the year 1834 I succeeded to the first 
 vacancy that occurred, after my being appointed 
 serjeant-surgeon, in the Court of Examiners oi 
 the College of Surgeons. I did so not by elec- 
 tion, but under the provisions of the charter in 
 virtue of my office as serjeant-surgeon. The 
 original object of this arrangement was, I sup- 
 pose, that two responsible servants of the Crown 
 should belong to the court, instead of it being 
 altogether nominated by the college. In this
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 169 
 
 way Sir David Dundas, who was not at the time 
 even a member of the college, had become one 
 of the examiners about forty years previously. 
 The business of examining young men who are 
 candidates for admission into a profession be- 
 comes after some time very irksome ; the same- 
 ness and tediousness of it being in this instance 
 very little compensated by the moderate pecu- 
 niary advantages which belong to it. "When a 
 new charter was granted to the college some 
 years afterwards, establishing the order of Fel- 
 lows, by whom the council were to be elected, 
 and requiring the bye-laws to be submitted to 
 and sanctioned by the Secretary of State, the 
 rule as to the serjeant-surgeons being ex-officio 
 members of the Court of Examiners was dis- 
 pensed with, and I availed myself of this oppor- 
 tunity to resign my office as an examiner. 
 
 Under the original charter of the college, 
 none but members of the council were eligible 
 to the Court of Examiners, and they were very 
 generally elected according to seniority. There 
 was, however, no absolute rule on the subject ; 
 and I remember one occasion on which three
 
 170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 councillors (no one of whom certainly would 
 have been competent as examiner) were passed 
 over in succession, to elect Lawrence, as to 
 whose qualifications there could be no difference 
 of opinion. The monopoly of the examinership 
 by the council had always been considered as 
 a grievance, and the more so as the examiners 
 received a certain income as the reward of their 
 services. Yet I cannot say that any real harm 
 resulted from it. At the time of my being an 
 examiner, there was only one of my colleagues 
 who had not been a hospital surgeon, and he 
 had been a teacher of anatomy ; so that at any 
 rate they had had the opportunity of being qua- 
 lified for their duties. As to practical surgery, 
 I do not conceive there could have been any 
 much better selection, the examiners being all 
 men who had a large share of professional ex- 
 perience, and such as could not have been found 
 among younger men. In anatomy the exami- 
 nation might have been improved. It was con- 
 ducted altogether viva voce, except in osteology. 
 It would certainly have been difficult to procure 
 a regular weekly supply of subjects throughout
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 171 
 
 the year for examination by dissection ; but a 
 good deal more might have been done then, and 
 might be done now, by requiring the candidates 
 to describe -what they saw in preserved speci- 
 mens of natural structure, and in those exhibit- 
 ing the changes produced by disease. The great 
 objection to the viva voce examination is the 
 facility with which a student, having a good 
 memory and a clever tutor, may qualify himself 
 for the ordeal by cramming. This was> done 
 then, and is done still to a frightful extent. The 
 same objection does not apply to the examina- 
 tion in practical surgery when conducted by 
 well-informed and experienced surgeons. My 
 own view of the matter is, that while hospital 
 surgeons somewhat advanced in their profession 
 should be the principal element in a court of 
 examiners, it will be well to have conjoined with 
 them a certain number of younger men, fresh 
 from their anatomical studies, who, not being 
 much engaged in practice, would have more 
 leisure to bestow on the anatomical part of the 
 examination than the elders of the profession. 
 It would also be a great improvement on the
 
 172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 present system if the examination were con- 
 ducted at two distinct periods ; the one relating 
 to anatomy and physiology taking place when 
 half the period allotted to education was ex- 
 pired, and the other at the termination of the 
 whole. Further, without giving up the viva 
 voce examination altogether, a part of the exa- 
 mination should be always conducted by means 
 of written papers. I own that I think very 
 little of an objection which has been made to 
 the examinations at the college, that they are 
 not sufficiently extensive. It is to be observed 
 that the objects of the examination for the 
 membership of the College of Surgeons is merely 
 to ascertain whether the candidate has that 
 minimum of knowledge, without which it would 
 not be safe for any one to commence practice, 
 and which, if he has sufficient opportunities and 
 industry, and powers of observation, may enable 
 him after some time to become a good and use- 
 ful practitioner. The first requisite for a good 
 examination is, that there should be good exa- 
 miners. One who is well qualified for the task 
 will seldom fail, in the course of half an hour,
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 173 
 
 to ascertain whether the candidate has made 
 good use of his time as a student; while an- 
 other, less qualified, who has to prepare himself 
 for the occasion, may persevere in the examina- 
 tion for many hours, and blunder at last. 
 
 I may take this opportunity of observing that 
 it is a great mistake to compare the examina- 
 tion of young men entering a profession with 
 those for degrees in a university. A senior 
 wrangler may be a great mathematician, and a 
 first-class man in classics may be a first-rate 
 Greek scholar; but the utmost that can be 
 expected of a young lawyer, or physician, or 
 surgeon is, that he should show that he has laid 
 such a foundation as may enable him to profit 
 by the opportunities of experience which may 
 be presented to him afterwards. To be a tho- 
 rough master of his profession in the beginning 
 of his career is out of the question, and is a 
 thing to be attained only by unremitting study 
 and close observation, continued during a long 
 series of years. 
 
 The above remarks do not exactly apply to 
 the examination for the Fellowship of the
 
 174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 college. The object of this institution is to 
 ensure the introduction into the profession of a 
 certain number of young men who may be qua- 
 lified to maintain its scientific character, and 
 will be fully equal to its higher duties as hospi- 
 tal surgeons, teachers, and improvers of physio- 
 logical, pathological, and surgical science after- 
 wards. With this view, if they have not uni- 
 versity degrees, they are required to undergo a 
 preliminary examination in classics and mathe- 
 matics ; while, their professional education hav- 
 ing been continued for a longer period of time, 
 they are expected to show that they have a more 
 perfect acquaintance with those sciences whicli 
 axe the foundation of medical and surgical 
 knowledge than can be expected of the great 
 majority of those who are candidates for prac- 
 tice. If this system be properly and honestly 
 carried out, I apprehend that the result will be 
 that the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons 
 will be the most honourable distinction that is 
 offered to the junior members of the medical 
 profession. 
 
 For several years during this period of my
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 175 
 
 life I find little as regards myself that is worthy 
 of being recorded. With my constant profes- 
 sional engagements, and being from time to 
 time engaged in writing and in preparing suc- 
 cessive editions of my books, it may well be 
 supposed that I had little leisure to attend to 
 other pursuits. The circumstances in which I 
 was placed necessarily brought me in contact 
 with a great number and variety of persons of 
 all grades in society, and from all quarters of 
 the globe ; and there was much to interest me 
 in the various phases of human nature that 
 were thus presented to my observation; but 
 this is no more than what happens to all those 
 who have any large dealings with mankind. 
 Either personally, or by correspondence in 
 writing, there were few members of my own 
 profession with whom I was not more or less 
 in communication; but such communications 
 were of course more frequent with those who, 
 like myself, were in ex tensive practice in London; 
 and of these I feel it rather a duty to say that 
 I found them almost uniformly obliging and 
 accommodating, liberal-minded, and more free
 
 176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 from petty jealousies than could be well ex- 
 pected of any body of men -who were competing 
 for reputation in the same pursuit. Sir Astley 
 Cooper was still nominally in practice, and I 
 frequently called him into consultation in cases 
 in which either my patients or myself were de- 
 sirous of having a second opinion : but he was 
 chiefly occupied with anatomical researches, and 
 in making a collection of preparations, which, 
 after his death, was purchased of his nephew, 
 Mr. Bransby Cooper, by the College of Sur- 
 geons. For some years after the death of King 
 George IV., Sir Henry Halford retained the 
 largest practice as a physician. The necessary 
 result of the positions which we occupied in our 
 respective departments was that I was in more 
 frequent communication with him than with 
 any other member of the medical profession. 
 He was a clever and sagacious physician, with 
 a great deal of practical information, but with- 
 out any of that scientific knowledge which is 
 necessary for a right diagnosis of disease. He 
 was on the whole a very useful and successful 
 practitioner; but his views of disease were
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BKODIE, BART. 177 
 
 limited, and he was too apt to be contented 
 with relieving the present symptoms, instead of 
 tracing them to their origin, and making it his 
 object to remove the cause which produced 
 them. He was a good Latin scholar, and 
 prided himself rather over-much on his skill in 
 composing Latin verses. From being in fre- 
 quent attendance on the Royal Family, with 
 whom he was a favourite, he had acquired too 
 much of the habits and feelings of a courtier. 
 Still, he was in many respects an ornament of 
 his profession, and was a worthy representa- 
 tive of it as President of the College of Phy- 
 sicians. 
 
 At this time his most successful competitor 
 was my intimate friend (and colleague at St. 
 George's Hospital) Dr. Chambers. He was a 
 thorough gentleman in the best sense of the 
 word, an accomplished scholar, and had been 
 a diligent student in his profession. Although 
 Sir Henry Halford continued to be in atten- 
 dance on King William, the Queen seemed to 
 prefer Dr. Chambers'^ straightforwardness to the
 
 178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 courtier-like manners of the other. Latterly 
 Chambers was consulted by the King himself, 
 and he was in attendance on his Majesty during 
 his last illness, in conjunction with Sir David 
 Davis, the King's domestic physician. From 
 this time Dr. Chambers had the largest share of 
 medical practice in the metropolis, and he well 
 merited the estimation in which he was held by 
 both the public and the members of his own 
 profession. But his physical powers were scarcely 
 equal to the labours which were thus imposed 
 on him. One forenoon, when I was occupied in 
 seeing patients at my own house, he called on 
 me in a state of considerable alarm, having been 
 suddenly affected with a difficulty of articula- 
 tion. This attack was not of long duration. 
 But it was the first symptom of a disease of the 
 brain, which, though for a long time impercep- 
 tible to others, was too plain to those who were 
 intimately acquainted with him, and which 
 caused his death several years afterwards. He 
 had purchased a house with a small estate on 
 the sea-coast in Hampshire, to which, when no 
 longer in a fit state to pursue his profession, he
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, EART. 179 
 
 retired, and where he passed the few remaining 
 years of his life. Chambers had an extensive 
 knowledge of his profession, and his great natural 
 sagacity enabled him readily to apply what he 
 knew to the investigation and treatment of the 
 cases which were presented to him. He was al- 
 together an excellent practitioner, but he never 
 ventured to communicate the result of his ob- 
 servations to the public, and thus has left no- 
 thing behind him by which he will be known in 
 the next generation. But the same thing may 
 be said of many others. The best part of the 
 knowledge which the ablest practitioners have 
 acquired dies with them ; and the rule applies 
 even to those whose names are preserved to us 
 by their written works. It is only a small part 
 of the experience of Sydenham, or Pott, or 
 Hunter, that has been really transmitted to 
 posterity. They may have set up certain land- 
 marks to guide us in our course, but the multi- . 
 tude of smaller details on which success iu prac- 
 tice mainly depends are, for the most part, not 
 of a nature to be transmitted in writing. 
 
 I had been, from the earliest part of my pro-* 
 
 N 2
 
 180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP THE LATE 
 
 fessional career, in one way or another, so much 
 occupied that I had never found leisure, until 
 after what may be regarded as the middle period 
 of my life, to visit the Continent. In the year 
 1837 I paid my first visit to Paris, remaining 
 there for a month, having previously made a 
 tour in Normandy with Lady Brodie and our 
 daughter. I had formerly become acquainted 
 with several persons of eminence in that metro- 
 polis when they visited London, especially with 
 Cuvier, Orfila, Blainville, Roux, Edwards, Ma- 
 gendie, and Paul Dubois. I had seen Dupuy- 
 tren only on one occasion, when he came to 
 London to be present at the marriage of one of 
 the family of the Rothschilds. At the time at 
 which I am now writing, the only one of these 
 that remains is Dubois. I was received with 
 great kindness by my former friends and by 
 others whom I had not known before. Since 
 .then, up to the present time (1857), except in 
 passing through it in my way elsewhere, I have 
 paid only one visit to the French metropolis; 
 and I have been only once in Switzerland, and 
 once in Italy as far as Milan.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 181 
 
 As a boy I had read a good deal of both French 
 and Italian, and I have been in the constant 
 habit of reading French ever since. But in the 
 early part of my life there was so little inter- 
 course with foreigners, that the opportunities of 
 conversing with them were of rare occurrence ; 
 and when they did occur, after the termination 
 of the long war, I was so entirely occupied by 
 my other pursuits, that I did not avail myself 
 sufficiently of them. The consequence has been 
 that, although I read French as easily as En- 
 glish, I have never acquired the habit of speak- 
 ing it with facility; and this is probably one 
 reason why I have felt less inclination to travel 
 on the Continent than I should have felt other- 
 wise. It is worthy of notice that formerly the 
 speaking French was far from being a frequent 
 accomplishment. Sir Joseph Banks never con- 
 versed with foreigners without the aid of an in- 
 terpreter, and I have understood that Mr. Can- 
 ning did not acquire the habit of speaking French 
 until he was, as it were, compelled to do so by 
 becoming the Secretary of State for the Foreign 
 Department.
 
 182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 During the more active period of my profes- 
 sional life I was never absent from London for 
 more than a few weeks in the year. In the 
 year 1828 I engaged a house on Hampstead 
 Heath, which at that time was a comparatively 
 rural retreat. My family resided there during 
 the summer and part of the autumnal season, 
 and I generally was able to go thither to dinner, 
 returning to my occupation in London in the 
 morning. My lease having nearly expired, in 
 the year 1837 I purchased the property which 
 I now have in Surrey, with a larger and more 
 convenient residence. Although I was never 
 confined by illness, except on two or three oc- 
 casions for a few days at a time, yet I had 
 rarely enjoyed the feeling of being in perfect 
 health. In fact, I was scarcely strong enough 
 for the work which I had to do, and I have 
 little doubt that my health would have failed 
 altogether, if it had not been that my labours 
 were made lighter by the consciousness of suc- 
 cess, and that long experience had made me so 
 familiar with the practice of my profession, that 
 few things which were presented to me required
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 183 
 
 any painful effort of mind to enable me to un- 
 derstand them. The time had now arrived 
 when it seemed reasonable that I should con- 
 sult my own comfort by some relaxation from 
 my former exertions. Although we had lived 
 with little regard to expense, yet the consider- 
 able income which my profession afforded me, 
 had enabled me to make such a provision for my 
 family and myself, that I had no further anxiety 
 on this account. I had never been oppressed 
 by the desire to accumulate a fortune, beyond 
 that which was required to prevent my wife 
 and children from " going down in the world " 
 in the event of my being taken from them ; and 
 in establishing myself in my new residence in 
 Surrey, I at once determined to retire to it 
 during a considerable part of the summer and 
 autumn, and to extend my vacation annually. 
 To this plan I have faithfully adhered, and I 
 have every reason to be satisfied with the result. 
 Having the advantage of some kind and intel- 
 ligent neighbours, being visited by some of my 
 early friends, whom I had little opportunity of 
 seeing at other times, and always taking with
 
 184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 me some work to be done, either in preparing a 
 new edition of one of my books, or in some 
 other way, I have never experienced any kind 
 of inconvenience from the want of occupation. 
 I have no taste for what are called country pur- 
 suits, in shooting or hunting. For some years 
 I tried that of farming, but I was not long 
 enough in the country to take any great interest 
 in it, nor much to understand it ; and as I found 
 that it afforded me little amusement to counter- 
 balance the pecuniary loss which it occasioned, 
 I prudently abandoned this new undertaking. 
 I have always devoted a portion of the time 
 which I passed in the country, to the renewal 
 of some of the studies of my early life. But if 
 I had trusted to this alone, I am convinced that 
 my new mode of life would not have added to my 
 happiness. It must be confessed that to those 
 who have been long accustomed to the active 
 pursuits of life, and the variety and excitement 
 belonging to them, mere reading and learn- 
 ing is but dull work, and quite insufficient to pre- 
 vent the miseries of ennui, and the degradation 
 of mind which ennui necessarily produces.
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 185 
 
 In March, 1808, 1 was elected Assistant-Sur- 
 geon to St. George's Hospital. In January, 
 184-0, after having filled the place of assistant- 
 surgeon for fourteen years, and that of surgeon 
 for nearly eighteen years, I resigned my office. 
 During these thirty-two years the hospital, as 
 far as my profession was concerned, was the 
 greatest object of interest that I possessed. Ex- 
 cept during the brief intervals of my absence 
 from London, it rarely happened that I was not 
 some time during the day within its walls. I 
 was indebted to the opportunities which it 
 afforded me for the best part of the knowledge 
 which I had been able to attain. It had ren- 
 dered my professional life one of agreeable study, 
 instead of one of mechanical and irksome drud- 
 gery. Some of my happiest hours were those 
 during which I was occupied in the wards, with 
 my pupils around me, answering their enquiries, 
 explaining the cases to them at the bedside of 
 the patients, informing them as to the grounds 
 on which I formed my diagnosis, and my rea- 
 sons for the treatment which I employed, and 
 not concealing from them my oversights and 
 o
 
 186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE 
 
 errors ; and all this to kind and willing and only 
 too partial listeners. My intercourse with the 
 students, and, I may add, with the patients also, 
 was always to me a source of real gratification ; 
 and even now (many years afterwards) these 
 scenes are often renewed to me at night, and 
 events of which I have no recollection when 
 awake come before me in my dreams. It was 
 not without a painful effort that I made up my 
 mind to resign an office to which I had been 
 sincerely attached. In doing so I was influ- 
 enced by various considerations. One of them 
 was that I began to feel the necessity of di- 
 minishing the amount of my labours. Then 
 I had long since formed the resolution that I 
 would not have it said of myself, as I had heard 
 it said of others, that I retained a situation of 
 such importance and responsibility when, either 
 from age or from indifference, I had ceased to 
 be fully equal to the duties belonging to it; 
 and lastly, when I saw intelligent and diligent 
 and otherwise deserving; young men around me, 
 waiting their turn to succeed to the hospital 
 appointments, it seemed to me that there was
 
 SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE, BART. 137 
 
 something selfish in standing longer in their 
 way, when, as far as my own mere worldly in- 
 terests were concerned, I had obtained all that 
 I could desire. I have found no reason to he 
 dissatisfied with the resolution which I had 
 formed, and the step which I took in conse- 
 quence ; yet, for some considerable time after I 
 had taken it, I had many uncomfortable feel- 
 ings, and I never passed by the hospital with- 
 out something like a painful recollection that 
 my labours there were at an end. However, I 
 kept up in some degree my connection with it 
 for some years after my resignation, by deliver- 
 ing annually a short course of lectures gratui- 
 tously to the students during the winter ses- 
 sion, generally selecting for that purpose some 
 one class of diseases, giving a more detailed 
 history of my own experience than it was pos- 
 sible to give in an ordinary course o surgical 
 lectures. 
 
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