Middletown transcript., 1877-04-14

den, and Padua, Mead became famous
: at an early age, and soon acquired
European reputation Though mild,
forbearing man, be once drew his sword
on his scurrilous rival, DR.. Woodward,
and forced him to beg his pardon, His
grand house in Great 0rmond street
contained library Of ten thousand
volumes, and curiosities innumerable,
which be could we'll afford to purchase
out of his six thousand pounds year
A liberal patron of arts and sciences,
be helped to start the Founding Hos
pital, and was generous to artists and
scholars As physician to St. Thomas
j, Hospital. anatomical lecturer to the
Surgeons Company, and Vice-Presi-
dent Of the Royal Society, he knew
every one who was eminent He cor
responded with his old fellow-student,
Boerhaave, and was eulOgized by Pope.
who says: II 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
cofee-house, near Coyent Garden
With all his learning, Mead believed
that the sun and moen had influence
over human bodies, and wrote work
on the subject.
| At the age of twenty, Fothergill, the
son of planter in Tortola, released his
fifty slaves, and became voluntary
beggar; then commencing practice, he
amassed nearly two thousand pounds in
six montbs, and came to England,
where be soon became renowned for his
benevolence and bis learning
Passing over Friend, whose Jacobit-
ism got him into the Tower, and Che
selden, with his prediction for pugil-
ism, 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 bis purse, be obtained
a commission in the army. His rich
patients be neglected for the poor. He
was one of the earliest supporters of the
Margate ea-batbing Infrmary He
promoted vaccination, and helped for
ward the Royal Humane Society .-
Lettsom is described as tall man, with
dark yellow face The well-known
epigram upon him ran
When any sick to me apply
| physics bleeds, and sweats EN-;
If after that they choose to die,
What's that 10 me ?-I Lettsom.
A greater man, and quite as social
and amiable, was Edward Jenner, the
discoverer of vaccination. A chance
remark of Gloucestershire dairymaid
was the origin Of this great and useful
discovery He was the son of Glou-
cestershire clergyman and on the ex-
piration of his apprenticeship to a sur
geon near Bristol, studied under the
celebrated John Hunter. In 1870,
Parliament voted Jenner twenty thou
sand pounds, as it appeared clearly
from a report of the College of Physi-
clans that, out of 164, 81 cases of vac
cination, there had been only three
deaths Jenner seems to have been q
meek, gentle, and modest man. aston
ished at his own fame Tho character
of the man is well shown in a letter he
wrote to Cline, who assured him, if he
came to London, he would earn ten
thousand pounds year.
"Shall l." he says, "who, even in
the morning of my days, sought the
lonely and sequestered paths of life in
the valley, and not the mountain
shall I, now my evening is fast ap-
preaching, hold myself up as an object
for fortune and for fame? Admitting
it as a certainty that 1 obtain both,
what stock should l add to my little
fund of happiness? And as for fame,
what is it "a gilded butt, forever
pierced with the arrows Of malignaucy."
John Hunter was a remarkable in
stance of natural genius discovering its
true bent. The Glasgow cabinetmaker's ]
boy was right when he left the plane
and the chisel, and turned anatomical |
assistant, to be in time surgeon-general {
of the army, and, without doubt, the
first surgeon of Europe. On his great |
collection, now in the College of Sur
geons, Lincoln Inn Fields, Hunter is {
said to have spent ninety thousand t
pounds. It was purchased by govern (
ment for fifteen thousand Hunters t
skilfulness may be gathered from the t
fact, that he once removed tumor as '
large as q mans head, and healed the Q
wound, as surgeons say, by the first I
He was so diffdent a lee I
turer, that he is said to have always
taken thirty drops of laudanum before
he commenced his discourse In char a
acter Hunter was arrogant and con i
temptuous trampling down all opposi-
ton. When told Of a hostile criticism t
being published, be said +: "Yes, we f
have all of US vermin that live upon t
US I Hunter died in 1898, suddenly,
at meeting 10 St. Georges Hospital, &
where some opposition had irritated
him A. fear of hydrophobia from a cnt a
be had received in dissectiug hydro f
phobic patient, had latterly preyed p
much upon bis mind. His chief dis
coveries were in relation to cancer and 0
popliteal aneurism; but he carried the Il
study of anatomy farther than his pre- f,
decessor. and established the existence a
Of new properties in the gastric juice. Ii
Hunter was fond Of keeping wild ami p
mails, from which he some times ran g
great risks.
In Abernethy, we come again to one S
Of those rough eccentric physicians tt
Of whose kindness innumerable good Ct
stories are told. Like DR.. johnson,
be had warm heart under rough ex- p
/