Brodie's autobiography / Frederick Pollock.

  • Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brodie's autobiography / Frederick Pollock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and deserves to be constantly re¬ membered by all those whom it concerns. In another place Brodie disclaims having any special manual aptitude to account for his becoming so f excellent an operator and dis¬ sector ; and says that, on the con¬ trary, he was naturally very clumsy in the use of his hands, and only became at all otherwise by taking great pains. On coming to London, Brodie attended Abernethy’s lectures on anatomy. He speaks of him as all his pupils have done. He seems to have possessed the happy power of communicating the largest amount of instruction with the least fatigue to his hearers. His example, and the devotional regard with which he inspired Brodie, determined him to belong to the same department of the profession in which Abernethy was distinguished. And after the experience of fifty years, he gives it as his opinion * that the pursuit of what is called pure surgery, such as it is fin ‘large cities, in connexion with a hospital and a medical school, is more replete with interest, and, on the whole, more satisfactory than any of the other branches into which the ars medendi is divided/ Brodie was, during his first years of London, thrown much into the company of young lawyers. There was his own brother, and Henman, and Merivale, and Stoddart, and Gifford, and others, mostly several years older than himself, to whose society and example he confesses himself to have been much indebted. He was one of the early members of the debating society called ‘ The Academical/ transplanted from Ox¬ ford by Hr. Maton, and some of his friends, and then held at a large house in Bell-yard. Among the members were the two Grants, Bowdler, Francis Horner, and Sir Henry Ellis, with whom Brodie was for some time associated as one of the joint secretaries or registrars of the society. Lord Campbell, too, was one of the club, and is mentioned as having read an essay to prove that war had been the great agent in civilizing the world. He was f an indifferent speaker, but what he said was always to the purpose/ Hr. Maton was the president, and a most zealous member of ‘ The Academical/ and desired to confine its debates to the discussion of literary and scientific subjects. But its locality, and the number of young- lawyers belonging to it, ruled other¬ wise ; and as might have been ex¬ pected, the society assumed more of the character of a general debating club, in which capacity it flourished for some years, but ceased to be connected with the life of the student and professor of surgery with which we are now concerned. , Sir Benjamin Brodie has some remarks on the changes in hours and manners which have rendered the attendance at evening meetings more difficult than it used to be, when the habitual dinner-time, at least among the professional classes, was not later than five o’clock. To this also must be added the more multiplied attractions of private society, and the better general facili¬ ties now enjoyed of joining in, or listening to, good conversation with¬ out going out of the ordinary op¬ portunities of society. It has some¬ times been said that the art of con¬ versation has declined, if it has not become even totally lost. Certainly we have now no Hr. Johnson, with his attendant reporter; we have not even a Macaulay, a Sydney Smith, or a * Conversation ’ Sharpe. But the number of persons who can talk well on a variety of subjects is enormously increased; and, pace veterum, we are happy enough to be able to believe that as good (or better) conversation is now to be had as in the time of the great extinct Megatheria and Leviathans of talk. The larger temptations and advantages of general society must therefore, no doubt, be con¬ sidered as having their share in rendering formal places of meeting for intellectual purposes less ne¬ cessary than they may formerly have been. Yet, when it is re¬ membered what crowds are often to be seen at the evening meetings of the Loyal Institution, or of the Geographical Society, it can hardly be affirmed that such places have, in fact, lost any of their attractions. Luring Brodie’s second vacation
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