Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1875-03-11

fists and scholars. As physician to st.
Thomas Hospital, anatomical lectures
to the Surgeons Company, and Vice
President of the Royal Society, he knew
every one who was eminent. He cor
responded with his old fellow-student,
Boerhaave, and was eulogised BY Pope,
who says: 81 highly esteem and love
that worthy man."
Like his patron Radcliffe, Mead was
fond of taverns. He spent his even
ings at Batson's coffee-house; and in
the forenoons, apothecaries used to con-
suit him, for half guinea fees, at Toms
Coffee house, near Coyent Garden.-
With al hiss learnine. Nod he2ieyed
that the sun and moon had influence
over human bodies, and wrote q work
on the subject.
At the age of twenty, Fothergill, the
son of planter in Tortola, released his
fifty slaves, and became q voluntary
beggar; then commencing practice, he
amassed nearly two thousand pounds in
six months, and came to England, where
he soon became renowned for his benev-
olence and his learning.
Passing over Friend, whose Jacobit-
ism got him into the Tower, and Ches-
elden, with his prediction for pugi-
lism, We pass on to that excellent man,
the Quaker physician, Lettsom. When
only forty years Of age, DR.. Lettsom is
said to have made twelve thousand
pounds per annum. The charity and
generosity of this amiable man knew no
bounds. For highwayman who stop
ped him and took his purse, he obtained
q commission in the army. His rich
patients he neglected for the poor. He
was one of the earliest supporters Of
the Margate Seabathing Infirmary. He
promoted vaccination, and helped for
ward the ROYAL Humane Society. Lett
som is described as a tall man, with a
dark yellow face The well l-known ep-
iSram upon him ran:
When any sick to me apply
Iphysics, bleeds and sweats 'em;
II after that they choose to die,
What's that TO me ?-I Le;tsom
A greater man, and quite as social
and amiable, was Edward Jenrer, the
discoverer of vaccination. A chance re-
mark of a Gloucestershire dairymaid
was the origin of his great and useful
discovery. He was tie son of a Glou-
cestershire clergyman, aid on the expi-
ration of his apprenticeship to a sur
geou near Bristol. studied under the
celebrated John Hunter. In1790, Par
lament voted Jenner twenty thousand
pounds, as it appeared clearly from a
report of the College Of Physicians that,
out of 164.31l cases of vaccination,
there had been only three deaths. Jen-
ner seems to have been d meek, gentle,
and modest man, astonished at his own
fame. The character of the man is
well shown in letter he wrote to Cline,
who assured him, if he came to Lon
don, he would earn ten thousand pounds
a year.
"Shall l." he says, "who even in the
morning of my days sought the lowly
and sequestered paths of life in the val
ley, and not the mountain-shall /, now
my evening is fast approaching, hold
myself up as an object for fortune and
fame? Admitting it as acertainty that
/ obtain both, what stock should / add
to my little fund of happiness? And
as for fame, what is it-a gilded butt,
forever pierced with the arrows of ma
lgnancy."
John Hunter was q remarkable in
stance of natural genius discovering its
true bent. The Glasgow cabinet ma
ker's boy was right when he left the
plane and chisel, and turned anatomi-
cal assistant, to be in time surgeon gen.
eral of the army, and, without doubt,
the first surgeon of Europe. On his
great collection, now in the College of
Surgeons. Lincoin's Inn Fields, Hunter
is said to have spent ninety thousand
pounds. 1t was purchased by the gov
ernment for fifteen thousand. Hunters
skillfulness NAV be gathered from the
fact, that he once removed tumor as
large as mans head, and healed the
wound, as surgeons say, by the first in
tention. He was so diffident a lectur-
er, that he is said to have always taken
thirty drops of laudanum before he
commenced his discourse. In charac-
ter, Hunter was arrogant and contemp-
tuous, trampling down all opposition.
When told of hostile criticism being
published, he said: "Yes, we have all
of us vermin that live upon u.s." Hunter
died in 1898, suddenly, at a meeting in
ST. Georges Hospital, where some op-
position had irritated him. A fear of
hydrophobia from a cut be had receiv.
ed in dissecting a hydrcphobia patient,
had latterly preyed much upon his
mind. His chief discoveries were in re.
lation to cancer and popiteal aneurism;
but be carried the study of anatomy
farther than his predecessor, and estab-
lished the existence of new properties in
gastric juice. Hunter was fond of kee,-
ing wild animals. from which he some.
times ran great risks.
In Abernethy, We come again TO ons
Of those rough, eccentric physicians oi
whose kindness innumerable good sto.
ries are told. Like DR.. johnson, I.
had warm heart under q rough exte.
rior. Though he could be absolutel,
brutal to fine ladies and affected misses
he is said 10 have been an amiable man
beloved of his family and friends. Bu
to tiresome patients and nalades imaq
iaares, he was at times the persouatio,
OF rudeness: 'Sir. that's enough; g,
home and read my book" To a lady
who complained of low spirits, he woui,
say Don't come TO me; 60 and bur
skipping.rope." Sometimes. howeve,
he met his match. Curran one day cam
IN cnnsnlf him and uas -a4ha- Ar.