342 Reviews. [Oct. keview rv. 1. An Account of the Life, Lectures, and Writings of William Cullen, M.D., Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of Edin- burgh. By John Thomson, M.D., F.E..S. L. <fc E., Professor of Medicine and General Pathology in the University of Edinburgh. In 2 vols. Vol. I. first published in 1832, now re-issued along with the second volume, and having prefixed to it a Biographical Notice of the Author. Yol. II. commenced by Dr John Thom- son and Dr. "William Thomson, and concluded by David Craigie, M.D., F.R.C.P.E., E.E..S.E., &c. &c.?Edinburgh and London. 1859. pp. 1524. 2. The Worlcs of William Cullen, M.D., Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of Edinburgh; containing his Physiology, Nosology, and First Lines of the Practice of Physic, with numerous Extracts from his Manuscript Papers, and from his Treatise on the Materia Medina. Edited by John Thomson, M.D., F.P.SS. L. & E., &c. <fec. In 2 vols. 8vo.?Edinburgh. 1827. We hope that when, a year and a half ago, the bulky volumes which stand first of those prefixed to this article were given to the world, the editors did not delude themselves with the idea that their perusal from beginning to end was at all probable. Surely the commonest charity would forbid the imposition of such a task upon any but the most idle. It grieves us to state that a more injudicious compilation, or a more oppressive attempt at professional bookmaking, it has never been our lot to meet with. And the life and labours of such a mas- terly and perspicuous teacher as was Cullen have no business to be made a clog upon any library table, when we might have had a plea- sant and readable narrative of that illustrious physician. It would appear that in the year 1832 Dr. John Thomson, of Edinburgh, pub- lished that first volume of the 'Life of Cullen' with which most of us are familiar, giving assurance to the public that this instalment of biography should in due time be followed by a supplementary issue. This assurance, however, was not fulfilled until years after the death of the elder Thomson. The work, indeed, was in progress, but re- ceived a temporary interruption by the removal from Edinburgh to Glasgow of the author's eldest son, who had greatly assisted him in the compilation. The subsequent decline of the father's health, his death in 1846, the son's increasing professional duties in his new sphere, followed also by death in 1852, have thus, until recently, pre- vented the fulfilment of a design which both Dr. John and Dr. Wil- liam Thomson had deeply at heart, and for the accomplishment of which they laboured diligently. A younger brother and son (Dr. Allen Thomson) now appears upon the scene, and, charging himself with editorial superintendence, consigns a huge amount of historic labour to Dr. Craigie, contenting himself with a graceful dedication to Sir ?Benjamin Brodie, a history of family antecedents, and a general 1861.] William Cullen. 343 arrangement of this second volume. So that the work, in its complete and bi-volumed form, which has been thus launched upon the crowded and restless sea of literature, is something more than a biography of Cullen. It is, in fact, a biography of that great physician; but it is also a biography of Cullen's two biographers. In short, eighty-four Pages are devoted to a sketch of Dr. John Thomson, eight pages to a Notice of Dr. William Thomson, and the remaining fourteen hundred and thirty-two to matters which bear directly or indirectly upon the author of the ' Nosology' himself. We are not at all disposed to " question the rare learning in the general history of medicine" which Dr. Allen Thomson attributes to his friend Dr. Craigie; but we can- not help thinking that this very learning has been the cause of much irrelevant disquisition and of much intolerable prolixity. The amount ?f space, indeed, which is devoted to the conflicting opinions of those ^'ho may not have thought with Cullen is quite extraordinary; and the reader is lost in bewilderment at views and theories which might have been " buried in the night of oblivion," inasmuch as they are not ?nly not at all essential, but absolutely detrimental, to the elucidation ?f Cullen's career. To take one instance : in the second volume alone, two hundred and eighty-four pages (besides nine pages in the Appendix) are devoted to an elaborate disquisition of " Brunonianism," and to a history of the Italian medical doctrines therefrom. Who " springing ?n earth but an unhappy reviewer," to whom such things are a can afford time or for so minute an of the necessity," patience analysis new, perfect, and unalterable system" of Dr. John Brown 1 Even the editors themselves (we speak plurally) seem startled at the nature ?f the country over which they have dragged us, and lead us back again, after a protracted diversion, to the nominal subject of this Memoir, in the following language: " We have at length traversed the rugged and thorny regions of controversy and misrepresentation; of rival conflicting and disputed claims; of alleged discoveries, reforms, and improvements in medical theory and practice." (Vol. ii. p. 506.) It is to be wished that Drs. Allen Thomson and Craigie had been Under the pressure of a more condensed atmosphere than they appear to have breathed during the construction of this biography, and that they had been more mindful of what he whose theories they expound " has written : My business is not so much to explain how this and that happens, as to examine what is truly matter of fact; my anxiety 18 not so much to find out how it happens, as to find out what happens."* From a paucity of biographic materials, which the editors them- selves deplore, and which makes the great bulk of this work more ^excusable, we shall endeavour to furnish our readers with a com- pendious narrative of a who, without ever manifested a physician having high order of intellectual faculty, is yet more associated in our Poinds with the medical progress of the last century than any other ^dividual. William Cullen was the second of a family of seven sons and two * "Works, vol. i. p. 44?. 34.4 Reviews. [Oct. daughters, and was born at Hamilton, on the loth of April, 1710. At the grammar-school of that town, and afterwards in the University of Glasgow, he received his education, and cultivated those qualities by which he was ever afterwards distinguished?great quickness of appre- hension, and a very remarkable memory. In the great Scottish centre of industrial commerce he likewise initiated his medical career, being apprenticed to a general practitioner or apothecary of the name of Paisley. Finishing his studies there towards the end of 1729, the young Cullen went to London, with a view of obtaining a situation in which he might enjoy opportunities of acquiring a practical know- ledge of his profession. It is not narrated (though the subject is suggestive of speculation in reference to that puzzle of puzzles, a ' modern Bradshaw') what time was occupied in the transit from one city to the other. The fact, however, is on record that Mr. Paisley's pupil did not remain long in London, for he was almost immediately appointed surgeon to a merchant vessel trading to the Spanish colonies of the West Indies, whose captain was a Scotchman and a relation of his own. During the voyage thither, and there, he had the advantage of observing the diseases peculiar to those latitudes, and the effect of climate upon the human constitution. In the beginning of 1732 young Cullen returned to Scotland, to find himself the eldest surviving son, charged with the duties of arranging the affairs of his father (who had been dead some years), and providing for the educa- tion and settlement of the younger branches of the family. Fortunately for both parties, his late commander (Captain Cleland) had returned also to his patrimonial estate of Auchinlee, in the neighbourhood of Hamilton, and he invited "William Cullen to reside with him and superintend his son, who was afflicted with a lingering disorder. Here the young medicus had abundant opportunities of study, of which ho fully availed himself. Two years later, succeeding to a legacy by the death of a relative, he again crossed the Border, and resided with a dissenting minister in Northumberland, where he gave himself up to philosophy and general literature. The winter sessions of 1734.-5 and 1735-6 were spent in Edinburgh; but Cullen did not graduate in Those medicine until five years later, at the University of Glasgow. years were occupied in general practice in his native town, where the afterwards celebrated Dr. William Hunter (whose theological tenden- cies were diverted by Cullen) resided with him for awhile as friend and pupil. It is curious that after this relationship between them ceased, these two great men never met but once again, though they continued to the last to maintain an intimate and familiar corre- spondence. In the autumn of 174:4, Dr. Cullen, having been twice elected a borough magistrate, and once married, relinquished his general practice in Hamilton, and settled as a physician in Glasgow. The following extract from a letter of William Hunter to Cullen, in 1745, will be read with interest: " Well, how does the animal economy appear to you, now that you have examined it, as one may say, with precision ? I have good reason to put the question to you, because, in my little attempts that way, since I began to think.