XXIII.

ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF THE USE OF THE SPLEEN AND OF THE THYROID GLAND. By Sir A. CARLISLE, F.R.S. President of the Royal College of Surgeons, &c. Octavo, stitched, pp. 23. Price Half-a-Crown. Title page, with red and blue lines alternately.

WHEN We see an individual with an emaciated body, and a pallid face studded with carbuncles, we always conclude that some of the vital organs are in a state of decay, or at all events, of derangement. The recollection of this observation flashed on our minds, when we contemplated a royal octavo titlepage crossed with red and blue stripes on a white ground-like the tricoloured flag waving over the fading lily of the Bourbons!

Sir Anthony dedicates this notable 66 DISCOVERY" to the Earl of Egremont, as a respectful homage to a nobleman "who generously maintained through life Mr. André, a helpless man of genius of my profession." What Mr. André may have done, or left undone, thus to merit, the eleemosynary protection of an English nobleman, we know not; but we confess that the present dedication, founded on such a basis, looks rather awful, especially when coupled with the following splenetic effusion.

"The nobility of England in former times were the munificent protectors of literature and science, and the same patronage is wanted in the passing age; because forward and rapacious writers now address their crude productions to an increasing multitude of superficial readers, leaving the more profound labours of studious men to a market glutted with frivolous books."-Pref.

That the literary market has been glutted with frivolous books, in all ages, is a remark as old as Homer, and as often repeated as the succession of the hours and days, since the blind bard's time. But that good books are suffered to fall into oblivion because the nobility of England have ceased to patronize them, we most positively deny. The case indeed is altered. The patronage

of a great man cannot now, as formerly, protect stupidity and imbecility from the keen arrows of criticism, or raise fools and flatterers into butterfly distinction. Patronage, now-a-days, must be sought and gained (if gained at all) from the PUBLIC-and, although GENIUS must often wither in the shade of neglect, we hope its fostering angel will never wing her flight from the republic of letters to the aristocracy of wealth.

We entreat the reader's attention to the following passage in the preface of this half-crown harlequin.

"The talent for scenting discoveries before they become apparent to the vulgar, is not a worldly advantage; it excites the hatred of ordinary persons, and occasions the jealous opposition of rivals. I do not look for a favourable reception of my doctrines until they have been submitted to the more com petent physiologists of the Continent, and on their disinterested judgment I confidently rely, not only for a due estimation of the explanation here given of the uses of the spleen and thyroid gland, but also for a just valuation of all the collateral illustrations which are here adduced."-Pref.

The vanity which breathes through the foregoing passage is truly laughable. The "talent for scenting discoveries before they become apparent to the VULGAR!!!" And then again, the ingratitude of the author's compatriots! He looks for no favourable reception among his own countrymen! No! It is only among foreigners that Sir Anthony expects a favourable reception. And why? We are ready to grant that riches, rank, and reputation, in the medical profession, are followed by envy and detraction, as regularly as the substance is followed by the shadow. Sir Anthony is a knight; and what is more, he has held the presidency of the College of Surgeons. But these dangerous eminences have been attained by men before Sir Anthony's “discovery" saw the light, and that without drawing upon them the jealousy, envy, and hatred of their countrymen. Mr. Abernethy was president of the College, and yet Englishmen respected his writings. Sir Astley Cooper attained

the baronetage as well as the presidency, and still his writings were devoured by the profession, as soon as they issued from the press.* Sir Anthony has not shewn much tact or discrimination in the foregoing passage. He has, at one and the same time, insulted the justice of his countrymen, and the judgment of foreigners. If Englishmen neglect or repudiate the alleged discoveries" of Sir Anthony, because he is a knight or a president, they are a despicable set of wretches: -if foreigners embrace them, when the whole body of the British medical profession treat them with contempt, they are fools.

And now let us glance at this wonderful "alleged discovery" of the functions of the spleen and thyroid gland. The "discovery" was read at the College of Physicians, and escaped our notice last year. It is an old friend, with scarcely a new face! Both Harvey and Stukely imagined that the principal office of the spleen was to furnish a focus of heat. M. Ribes, in an elaborate article on the spleen, in the great DICT. DES SCIENCES MED, makes use of the following expressions, which we recommend to Sir Anthony's attention. "We are surprised at the mass of futilities sent forth respecting the use of the spleen. Are we to believe, with some writers, that it serves as counterbalance to the weight of the liver-that it serves, according to Cowper, to attenuate the blood-or, according to Harvey, to heat the same?"-Now the great "DISCOVERY" which the "talent for scenting" has enabled Sir Anthony to make is, neither more nor less than this that the spleen is a kind of oven

for heating the stomach and thereby assisting it in the concoction of our food: The thyroid gland, like the spleen, is a warmer or comforter, in its way. It communicates heat to the cold and bloodless cartilages of the larynx, and thereby improves the voice.

"The extreme supplies of red blood to the spleen, and its necessary high temperature, when compared with the scantiness of red blood allotted to the stomach and to the intestines, has occasioned a generally admitted inference, that the spleen transmits heat to the stomach above the rate of its own capacity to furnish heat, and hence it has been concluded by many persons that the heat derived to the stomach from the spleen is conducive to digestion."

We think it is rather unfavourable to the worthy knight's theory that, when the stomach is empty, the spleen is fullest of blood, and consequently is best calculated for its calorific function. On the other hand, when the stomach, is full of food, the spleen is most exsanguious!

Sir Anthony is not content with giving us his discovery of the splenic and thyroid functions for half a crown-he throws half a dozen of other discoveries into the bargain. The hair, which “has been childishly deemed a mere orna ment," is proved by our author to be a preventive of coup de soleil and cold. "Perhaps also the axillary tuft of hair is intended as a defence against cold to that most exposed plexus of nerves which supplies the arm.' This is excellent! It evinces Sir Anthony's surprising "talent for scenting discoveries," even in the arm-pits of his own species!

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We perceive that the worthy knight, while extremely liberal of his harsh insinuations against "ordinary persons," "jealous rivals," &c. in his own profession, takes especial care to praise himself to the skies. The opening address to the president of the College of Physicians is admirable.

"As the temporary officer of a kindred institution, I feel much satisfaction in making this early attempt to associate the endeavours of scholars and gentle

men to promote the science of organic physiology. On addressing your highly distinguished body upon subjects which have interested medical philosophers during more than 2000 years, some introductory apology may be deemed proper, and I accordingly submit that my pretensions to this honor rest upon zealous studies and practical researches in comparative anatomy during youth, and upon unceasing physiological meditations through a long professional life." So then this long life of " zea. lous studies," "practical researches," and "physiological meditations," has brought out the wonderful discovery that the spleen is an oven for heating the stomach !

Parturiunt montes---nascitur ridiculus mus

XXIV.

LIVES OF BRITISH PHYSICIANS,*

We intend to extract an anecdote or two occasionally from this amusing little volume. It must always be interesting to the present generation of medical men, to gain something like an insight into the private life and the chimney-corner of those who have long since earned their share of wealth and reputation, and passed away from the busy stage. Surely nothing impresses on the mind, with more solemn force, the futility and vanity of man's fretful and chequered career, than the study of biography! It is the same with all, the PRINCE and the clown-the man of talent, and the blockhead! We read that, on such a day, in such a year, they were born;-that they engaged in certain pursuits, and then-they died. But our mood must not be sad :-we took up the pen for amusement, perchance instruction; and why should we dip it in the ink of despondency!

DR. WILLIAM HUNTER. The first eminent man to whom we direct our attention, is Dr. WILLIAM

Family Library.

HUNTER. How strange and how awful the contrast between his first lecture and his last.

"His first anatomical course was attempted in 1746. He experienced much anxiety and doubt at the outset, but applause gradually inspired him with confidence, and he at length found the principal happiness of life to consist in the delivery of a lecture. Mr. Watson, one of his earliest pupils, accompanied him home after the trying mo ment of his introductory discourse. Hunter had just received seventy gui neas from admission-fees, which he carried in a bag under his cloak, and observed to his friend, that it was a larger sum than he had ever before possessed. The early difficulties of eminent men form perhaps the most instructive and animating portion of their biography. Linnæus records of himself, Erivi patria triginti sex num mis aureis dives. The profits of his two first courses were considerable; but, by contributing to relieve the wants of some of his friends, he found himself, on the approach of the third season, under the necessity of deferring his lec tures for a fortnight, merely from the want of money to supply the expense of the usual advertisements. This unpleasant embarrassment operated as a check upon him in the use of money, and probably formed one remote source of the large fortune which he afterwards accumulated."

All here was buoyant ; success converted the pale tremors of diffidence and suspense into the full flush and swing of conscious vigour. As happens with professional men, he lived but in the atmosphere of his own creation; he was miserable, save when lecturing. At last, like the old and gallant steed, on whose ears have burst the wellknown notes of the trump and the bugle, he rushes to the charge, exults, and dies.

"About ten years before his end his health was so much impaired, that, fearing he might soon become unfit for the profession which he loved, he proposed to recruit himself by a residence in Scotland, and was on the eve of purchasing a considerable estate, when

the project was frustrated by a defect in the title-deeds. This trifle banished his rural plans, and he remained in London, continually declining in health, but pursuing distinction with the same ardour with which he had courted it in his earlier days. He rose from a bed of sickness to deliver an introductory lecture on the operations of surgery, in opposition to the earnest remonstrances of his friends. The lecture was accordingly delivered, but it was his last; towards the conclusion his strength was so much exhausted, that he fainted away, and was finally replaced in the chamber which he had been so eager to quit. In a few days he was no more. Turning to his friend Combe, in his latter moments, he observed, If I had strength enough to hold a pen, I would write how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die.' He expired on the 30th of March, 1783: his brother, John, occasionally introduced the cathether in this last paralytic seizure."

Dr. Hunter, it is well known, confined himself to the practice of midwifery, and the following statement respecting the earlier teachers of this branch of medicine, may probably be gratifying to Sir Anthony Carlisle.

"Mawbray seems to have been the first teacher of obstetrics in London. He was lecturing in 1725, and established a lying-in hospital, to which students were admitted. The Chamberlains followed him-a family which professed to possess a better method of treating difficult labours than was known to others, and maintained a sort of mystery as to their instruments. This pretension was imitated by others. Smellie gave a new dignity to the subject by his talents and his lessons; although he is accused by a rival of advertising to teach the whole science in four lectures, and of hanging out a paper lantern, inscribed with the economical invitation, " Midwifery is taught here for five shillings!”

When Dr. Hunter invited his younger friends to his table, they were seldom regaled with more than two dishes; when alone he rarely sat down to more than one he would say, “A man who cannot dine on this deserves to have no

:

dinner." After the meal, his servant (who was also the attendant on the anatomical theatre) used to hand round a single glass of wine to each of his guests. How different all this from the modes of the day! Now, if a few pupils dine with their teacher, a dinner in state, with claret and champagne, is scarcely considered good enough for the nice young gentlemen. Our modern instructors have discovered, that, provided they appeal in a touching style to the belly, they need give themselves comparatively little trouble respecting the brains of students.

DR. BAILLIE.

So much has been written on this honoured name, and his memory is yet so green in the memory of all, that we shall only select one short anecdote of his irritability when much pressed by business. We have seen it before, but perhaps it may be new to many of our readers, and it possesses the inestimable advantage of brevity.

During his latter years, when he had retired from all but consultation practice, and had ample time to attend to each individual case, he was very deliberate, tolerant, and willing to listen to whatever was said to him by the patient; but, at an earlier period, in the hurry of great business, when his day's work, as he was used to say, amounted to sixteen hours, he was sometimes rather irritable, and betrayed a want of temper in hearing the tiresome details of an unimportant story. After listening, with torture, to a prosing account from a lady, who ailed so little that she was going to the Opera that evening, he had happily escaped from the room, when he was urgently requested to step up stairs again; it was to ask him whether, on her return from the Opera, she might eat some oysters: Yes, Ma'am,' said Baillie,' shells and all.'"

DR. JENNER.

Jenner was certainly a fortunate man. He lived to see his doctrines enthusiastically embraced; he was styled the benefactor of mankind, and what was still better, he knew that he was so; he received a handsome parliamentary grant;

and he died before those manifold failures of vaccination had started into any thing like a prominent attitude. It is true that his rewards were far, very far disproportioned to his merits; but still, when we look at the fate that commonly awaits discoverers, we cannot but consider JENNER as pre-eminently fortunate. The biographer of this amiable and great physician takes a less encouraging view of this subject. "Nevertheless," says he, "a painful reflection is forced upon us, in considering the history of Jenner; he surely did not receive, among his countrymen, the distinction, the fortune, and the fame which he merited. It seems that, among nations called civilized, the persons who contribute to amusement, and to the immediate gratification of the senses, occupy a higher share of attention, than the gifted and generous beings who devote their existence to the discovery of truths of vital importance. The sculptor, the painter, the musician, the actor, shall engross, a thousand times, the thoughts of citizens who, perhaps, only five times in a whole life, consider the merits of a Jenner. The little arts of puffing, the mean machinery of ostentation, never once entered the heads of a Newton, a Watt, or a Jenner; but they protrude into meridian splendour the puny pretensions of countless poetasters, witlings, and amateurs. Real genius and active industry should not be dismayed, however, by this indifference which clouds the dawn of their exertions, and which sometimes nips the bud of noble aspirations; for great truths there will always come a time and a place; the man who works for the benefit of his fellow-beings can afford to await the hour allotted for the full development of his labours, and bequeaths, in trauquil confidence, to posterity the reputation which he may have failed to ob tain from a dominant coterie of capricious contemporaries."

Those who can look philosophically through the mist of years, and, like Swift, dedicate their lives to PRINCE POSTERITY, may scorn the little buzz of ephemeral popularity. For those, however, who have no such noble yearnings

after posthumous fame, it is mortifying, no doubt, to see the world more disposed,

"To worship Catalani's pantaloons, than pay the eager tribute of admiration to solid unpretending worth.

We may mention of Jenner, ere we part, that, before he had matured his magnificent discovery, for such it deserves to be called, the Alveston Medical Club were so bored with him and it, that they threatened to expel him. When about to publish his first memoir, he was seriously admonished not to present it to the Royal Society, lest it should injure a character acquired by some observations on the cUCKOO! If these examples are not sufficient to shew the blindness of man, and the hair-breadth 'scapes to which the most beneficial improvements are liable, then will we

"Break our pipe and never whistle mair."

DR. GOOCH.

Alas, poor Gooch! Too frail and too irritable for this world, thou art quietly reposing at last with the wife of thy bosom and the children of thy affections, in the silence of the tomb! Thy faults, and they were few, are wrapped in the shroud ;-thy excellencies survive for thy family and thy profession. We recommend the life of Gooch to the perusal of all, who can look, with saddened and subdued gratification, on genius and talent and enterprise, struggling through a feeble corporeal frame, a melancholic temperament, and unremitting ill health.

P.S. The Editor, who is not "the writer of the foregoing notice of Dr. Gooch's biography, may be permitted to state that he was on terms of intimacy with Dr. Gooch for five or six years before his death. The memoir, though very minute, perhaps prolix, on many points, is not complete. Dr. Gooch consulted the Editor of this Journal more than once respecting a complaint which harrassed him greatly, though not at all alluded to in the memoir-viz. a prolapsus ani and a. considerable discharge from the rectum. Dr. Gooch was a HYPOCHONDRIAE, in consequence of the state of his stomach