EMINENT DOCTORS.
Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
EMINENT DOCTORS:
Their Lives and their Work.
BY
G. T. BETTANY,M.A. (Camb.), B.Sc. (Lond.), F.L.S.
AUTHOR OF “FIRST LESSONS IN PRACTICAL BOTANY,”
“ELEMENTARY PHYSIOLOGY,” ETC.
AND LECTURER ON BOTANY IN GUY’S HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL.
“There is to me an inexpressible charm in the lives of the good,brave, learned men, whose only objects have been, and are, toalleviate pain and to save life.”
—G. A. Sala.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
JOHN HOGG, PATERNOSTER ROW.
[All rights reserved.]
[Pg v]
PREFACE.
Medical Biography has not taken its dueplace in the thoughts of our countrymen,nor has it received deserved attention fromliterary men. Anecdotes of big fees, brilliantoperations, brusque actions, or suave politeness,have too exclusively contributed to form thepopular idea of eminent physicians and surgeons.Aikin’s incomplete “Biographical Memoirs ofMedicine,” Macmichael’s “Lives of BritishPhysicians,” and Pettigrew’s “Medical PortraitGallery,” have been the chief collective records ofBritish medical men; and the latter, owing toits expensive form, was inaccessible to most persons.Munk’s “Roll of the College of Physicians”is a mine of information about members of thatCollege, and a similar record of members of theCollege of Surgeons would be invaluable. In1865 Dr. Herbert Barker commenced, and after[Pg vi]his lamented death Dr. Tindal Robertson continued,a series of memoirs of living medicalmen, accompanied by photographs. The MidlandMedical Miscellany commenced to publisha somewhat similar series of memoirs, withportraits, in 1882. The medical press hasbeen distinguished for the ability and generalfidelity of its biographical notices of deceasedmembers of the profession.
There is no book, however, in current literaturewhich supplies medical men or the generalpublic with biographical accounts of the mostnotable men who in this kingdom have contributedto make the medicine and surgery ofto-day what they are. It is the aim of thepresent book to occupy this vacant place. Itis hoped that this has been done in a formneither too technical for the general reader, norunsuitable for the busy practitioner, who hasvery little time to read elaborate biographies,but would fain store his mind with the principalfacts and lessons of the lives of his great predecessorsand teachers.
The