George Macilwain

“ In science, we learn—and no doubt the deepest learn it best—that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy." Religion tells us there are many things "past man's understanding." Religion and science teach us alike that any inquiry into the positive and ultimate nature of anything which exists, is entirely beyond our faculties; and respectively impress on us the conviction, that our proper business is to search out the phenomena and laws of the one, and to obey the Commandments of the other. ”

“ Then came a sort of little smile, which mantled over the whole face, and lighted it up with something which we cannot define, but which seemed a compound of mirth, archness, and benevolence.
The adjustment of the quantity of matter to the time employed in discussing it, is an important point in teaching. A lecture too full, is as objectionable as a lecture too long. If the matter is spread too thinly, the lecture is bald and uninteresting, and apt to fall short of representing any integral division of a subject; if it be too thick, it is worse, for then all is confused and difficult. ”

“ In loving truth for its own sake, he learns by degrees to lean little on the worldly appreciation of labour—convinced that whatever is true, will one day find its own way, in the time best fitted for it. We cannot help thinking that it is the force of this double current of thought by which that climax has been reached by some of the greatest minds; which has exemplified the coincidence of the utmost range of human knowledge with the most profound humility; thus rendering the highest aspirations of science subservient to the cultivation of a principle ”

“ We are often told by lecturers of the value of knowledge for various purposes—for increasing the power and wealth of the country—for multiplying the comforts and pleasures of society—for amassing fortunes, and for obtaining what the world usually means by the term distinction. But Abernethy created a feeling distinct from and superior to all mere utilitarian purposes. He made one feel the mission of a conscientious surgeon to be a high calling, and spurned, in manner as well as matter, the more trite and hackneyed modes of inculcating these things. ”

“ When we see a man dead, whom we had contemplated alive, it certainly seems that something has left him; and whether we say "something superadded,"—the "breath" or "Life," or by whatever term we call it,—we appear really to express in as simple a form as possible the facts before us. It seems to us that, after all, John Hunter did little more; for the illustration or similitude by which we endeavour to render an idea clear, has in strictness nothing necessarily to do with the idea itself; any more than an analogy, however real the likeness, or a parallelism, however close, represents identity. ”

“ Nothing could be further from the earnest and thinking John Hunter than anything dramatic. Abernethy had that happy variety of countenance and manner that can be conveyed by no other term. Hunter, without being slow, was cautious, circumspect: Abernethy, without being hasty, was rapid, penetrative, and impulsive. Never were two minds so admirably fitted for the heavy-armed pioneering in science, and the comparatively light-trooped intellect which was calculated to render the first clearing easily convertible to those practical necessities with which the science had to deal. ”

“ We shall see how the industry and circumspection of the Argus-eyed Hunter, as Abernethy used to call him, enabled him to unfold a legend in nature, which he had neither length of days, sufficient opportunity, nor perhaps aptitude, wholly to decipher; and how far it was developed into practical usefulness by the penetrative sagacity and happy genius of Abernethy; which, like light in darkness, guides and sustains immediate research, and animates and encourages onward inquiry. ”

“ It enshrines, reader, a gem of great value, which nothing extrinsic can improve, which no mere art can embellish—a treasure gathered from the ample fields of nature, and which can be enriched or adorned only from the same exhaustless store. Though humble, indeed, the tenement, yet, were it humbler still, though it were composed of reeds, and covered in with straw, it would remain hallowed to science. ”

“ Humanity and Science went hand in hand. His method of discovering the nature of dislocations and fractures, by attention to the relative position of parts, was admirable; and few of his pupils, who have had much experience, have failed to prove the practical excellence of them. He repudiated nothing more than the too commonly regarded test, in fractures, of "grating, or crepitus." Nothing distinguished his examination of a case more than his gentleness, unless it was the clearness with which he delivered his opinion. ”

“ We, therefore, as far as in us lies, repudiate the charge; we regard it as groundless; and think that, as no profession affords more frequent opportunities for a constant awakening and keeping alive the best sympathies of our nature, so no profession can be more calculated to impress the fragile nature of the body, as contrasted with the immortal spirit which inhabits it, or the constant presence of that Power by whose laws they are both governed. ”

“ Labour, to be sure, is the stuff that life is made of; but then, in a fine organization like Abernethy's, it should be directed with economy of power, and in application to the highest purposes. Such an organization should, if possible, have been relieved from the drudgery which lies within the sphere of more ordinary capacity. Ready as we are, then, to congratulate the young philosopher, about to display his powers on a field where he was so successful, still misgivings creep in which restrain, or at least moderate, our enthusiasm. ”

“ So, in an animal, if we are ignorant of the use and relations of any organ, it is very improbable that we can understand the nature of its disorders, or treat them in any case successfully, except by the merest accident, which, though it may waken us up to a sense of our ignorance, leaves us so blind to the causes of our success that we have no power of repeating it. ”

“ When we see the hydropathist looking so much to the skin, homœopathy leading people to think of quantities of medicine; when, in the regular profession, we see one man restricting his views to one organ, another to another, a third thinking that everything can be learnt only by examination of the dead, thus confounding morbid anatomy with pathology—a fourth restricting his labours to the microscope, as if the discovery of laws depended rather on the enlargement of sensual objects than on the improvement of intellectual vision ”

“ He was now no more to enter the Hospital Square, where we have so often seen him mobbed, as it were, by the crowding and expectant pupils; no more to be daily addressing audiences who never seemed to tire even with repetitions of that with which many were already familiar; nor any more to see, as occasional visitors, men grown grey in the successful practice of his early lessons, bringing their sons to the same school, and both listening with equal pleasure. ”

“ The desire to interest and hold the attention of our audience is so natural, that it is very apt to escape one that this may be done on terms not consistent with our real object—the interesting the intellect; and this fault is perhaps, of all, the worst; because it is never a greater failure than when it appears to be successful. All other faults in lecturing, if serious, in one respect tell their own tale in the thinning audience. ”

“ It holds the monument of the untiring labour of a great master—the rich garnerings of a single mind—the record, alas! but of some of the obligations mankind owe to the faithful pioneer of a Science which, however now partially merged in clouds and darkness, and obscured by error, still exhibits through the gloom, enough to assert its lofty original, and to foster hopes of better times.
The museum of John Hunter (for it is of that we write) is one of the greatest labours ever achieved by a single individual. ”

“ Humanly speaking, we naturally ascribe discoveries to those who have practically demonstrated them; but when we examine all the clues which have been furnished by previous observers, we frequently have misgivings as to the justice of our decisions. In our admiration of the successful labour of the recent inquirer, we sometimes forget the patient industry of the early pioneer. With regard to those laws which govern the human body, we cannot suppose that the development of them can be destined to progress on any plan less determined than other branches of human inquiry. ”

“ Nothing shows the real tendencies of mind more than its restless desire to arrive at some conclusion, some tangible evidence of its highest functions. It is the impulse of this instinct—the ungoverned abuse of a high faculty, impatient for illegitimate fruition—which lies at the bottom of much false reasoning, and which blinds men, even of great power, to obstacles which are luminously evident to the most ordinary capacity. ”

“ When we reflect for a moment on the thousands of dreadful experiments which have been made on living animals, and the utter inconclusiveness of them for any useful purpose, there are, amongst the numerous errors by which so many philosophical inquiries have been delayed or defeated, few that are more lamentable.
This mode of investigation has not, so far as we can see, produced any one useful discovery; whilst it has tended to obscure, by all that is disgusting and repulsive, the true mode of cultivating a most alluring science. ”

“ The benevolence, however, to which we allude, was not merely shown in giving or remitting money; that, indeed, would be a marvellous overcoming of the world with many people, but not with Abernethy; his benevolence was no fitful suggestion of impulse, but a steadily glowing principle of action, never obtrusive, but always ready when required. It has been said, "a good man's life is a constant prayer." It may be asserted that a good surgeon's life should be a gentle stream of benevolent sympathies, supporting and distributing the conscientious administration of the duties of his profession. ”

“ We must take their immensely potential power as existing as certainly in the most trifling headache, as in the most malignant fever—in the smallest scratch, as in the most complicated compound fracture. We have plenty of facts now to prove this; but the first plain, clear enunciation of it all, the successful demonstration of it at the bedside, and the consequent diminution of an enormous amount of human suffering, is the great debt we owe to Abernethy. Mankind in general admitted that Diet was of consequence. Nobody doubted its force as an accessory in treatment. ”

“ Were the object to tax the sensibility of a student, and blind him to any higher association with pain and suffering than that afforded by custom and chloroform, and to substitute for a dignified self-possession and sympathy with suffering, which each kept the other in due control, an indifference to everything save adroitness of manipulation and mechanical display,—no machinery could be better calculated to effect such objects; but science and humanity require very different qualifications, and experience has shown that they are neither incompatible nor beyond our power. ”

“ Hundreds were beginning, under the light of a more liberal diffusion of general knowledge, to feel that the so-called Science of medicine and surgery was very different from science usually so termed; and, whilst other sciences were affording that which was definite and positive, the juxtaposition only seemed to bring out in higher relief the prevailing character of conjecture and uncertainty in medicine.
People began to see that, in mere human occupation, mystery is but mystery, to whatever it is applied; and that one man can see in the dark about as well as another ”