Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN Jl SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, BART. FEINTED BY 8 POTTISWOODI ABB C 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. PHIX FED BY SPOTTISWOOPK ASH Co., NEW-STKEET SQUARE, LOSDOS University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed.