SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS BRODIE, BART.: Threatened Invasion, Young Benjamin, with His Two a SKETCH.1 Elder Brothers, Raised a Company of One Hundred and Volunteers
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He had eager physical vigor too, though he was Original Articles small of Btature and delicate of frame; and his patriot- ism flamed out in season. In 1798, when Napoleon SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS BRODIE, BART.: threatened invasion, young Benjamin, with his two A SKETCH.1 elder brothers, raised a company of one hundred and volunteers. He was commissioned BY JAMES G. MUMFORD, M.D., BOSTON. forty ensign by the king. It was a fine, well-drilled and creditable A year ago, after publishing an essay on Sir Astley body of recruits. 1 waB asked to write of Cooper, something Benjamin Such a boyhood was in the back Brodie. 1 have done and the has lent itself great surgeon's so, subject ground ; but beyond this he was fortunate in family pleasantly to the task. connections, professional and others, which counted to Of Brodie I found soon that this knows generation him for good. His grandfather was the little be is read seldom students and other readora grandfather ; by also of that Thomas, Lord Denman who was tho advo of our medical literature, yet the man was in some cate of tho unhappy Queen Caroline, and Chief Justice ways a great man ; not so great, doubtless, as Cooper, of the King's Bench, later. His paternal grand- fifteen his but a in hi« years senior, striking figure mother was a daughter of a well-known physician, Dr. time; as a teacher, sound and resourceful ; as a writer, Samuel Shaw. One daughter of this lady married facile and instructive ; as a physician, accomplished Dr. Denman, the Chief Justice's father. Dr. Baillie aud successful ; a man of tho world, broad, lovable, and Sir Richard Croft had married his first cousins. cultured. forceful, With Buch a connection, it is not that young We that men walk of life must re- surprising say great in any Brodie camo to follow some branch of the art. flect was " healing the spirit of their times and this true of He had no "call for but as he wanted a — it, profes- Brodio as was of Cooper. The latter tho contempo- sional career, and his brother Peter had him of and Pitt the preceded rary Nelson, Wellington, Fox ; former, to London and was for the he turned to of Peel and Smith and studying bar, Palmerston, Sydney Macaulay. surgery as his vocation, not medicine, for he held Brodio lived the of the — Though through stormy days no university degree. This was in the year 1801. French he does not for to that Revolution, belong, ua, Brodie was sent to London to surgery. The but to the calmer era that when study age, succeeded, Europe choice was made by his father, not by himself. His was and the strenuous work of the being reconstructed, studies were entered upon faithfully, but without en- soldier was giving place to the labors of the statesman thusiasm. A long time he felt disinclined for such aud the philosopher. work. He disliked his fellow students ; and this is a Brodio was the finished product of his time. Society notable fact of his early professional days, that ho dis- was being reorganized, politics were being purified, believed in "calls." In his ho and the autobiography says English people were being prepared for that some interesting things in that connection. He great wave of altruism aud social regeneration that thought, always, that he should have done woll we now know. was its equally Science, too, taking rightful in the church, at tho bar, or in the civil service. To in the of men who were to place eyes beginning ap- him it was all a question of thoroughness; of endeavor. preciate tbe groat truths taught by Hunter in the last Iu the days of medical those and in all these with their early study things century ; revivals, changed which offend all seusitive men were especially conditions and new Brodio took a most repug- interests, nant to him ; and, above all things, he disliked his and forward Not a hero or a prominent part. genius, associates. Indeed, the average medical student of a but an man of talents and accomplished exceptional hundred years ago seems to have been a sorry fellow. of view he won aud hold the fore- catholicity ; long Those youths mostly were drawn from the lower most placo among English surgeons. middle classes ; they had little education or Collins Brodie was born in. and breeding, Benjamin 1783, and were a rough, boisterous, uncouth died in and therefore to this hard-drinking, 1862, belongs entirely crowd, not at all pleasing as comrades to the fastid- century, so far as his work in the world is concerned. ious young Brodio, tho highly cultivated Like he was the son clergyman's many distinguished Englishmen, son, fresh from tho kindly home circle of Winterslow of a In his country clergyman. charming autobiog- parsonage. But there were compensations for this in raphy Sir Benjamin tells of his ancestry and boyhood ; other associates — social, rather than professional. and the facts are these: that his a striking father, Two young surgical friends he had indeed — Crawford a man of Scotch lineage, was a Whig in politics and and Lawrence — of whom he and of the first Lord thought highly, protégé Henry Fox, Holland, by they lived to justify his regard ; and in the world at whom he was presented with the living of Winterslow, largo men interested him, and the friends he made in Wiltshire. There he lived and there his always, among them came to mean much to him. This as- children were born and educated. He was the father sociation of his professional life with the interests of of sons and himself many daughters, whom he taught: the community was typical of Brodle his and a man of broad culturo for tho time in throughout being career ; indeed, the the man did are much less which he he them well and things lived, taught thoroughly. important to us than what the man was. Such mt-n, French, Italian were their Latin, Greek, English, living in a community, sot their stamp upon their pro- studies ; and upon such a foundation of the best litera- fession. ture his distinguished son builded. This was a stu- Brodie's professional training followed the general dious, methodical, retiring boy, given to solitary lines familiar to all well-educated of his time. and little addicted to the of tho surgeons rambles, Bports day, The first two years were given to anatomy, mostly; for which, his were small. indeed, opportunities to chemistry, and to some little picked was his motto, his were his pharmacology "Thorough" opinions up in a chemist's shop. lectures on anat- own. Abernethy's omy were attended, and the Bchool of a Mr. Wilson, 1Read before the Warren Club, March 28, 1899. who taught in Great Windmill Street. From the out- The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal as published by The New England Journal of Medicine. Downloaded from nejm.org at UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON on June 28, 2016. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. From the NEJM Archive. Copyright © 2010 Massachusetts Medical Society. set he was diligent and successful, we must believe — up a doorplate, aud began the practice of surgery in though he tells his own story very modestly for he earnest. — won the confidence and regard of his seniors early, and Brodie practised medicine from 1809 until 1862, was made their associate and treated almost as an when ho died —a period of fifty-three years. He was equal when little more than a youth. That period of a successful man ; he came to be the moat notable sur- his life is interesting, and to be dwelt upon if there geon of his generation ; he was everywhere esteemed were time. He did not come in contact directly with and honored ; he won the highest prizes ; he made some tho great teachers of the day—John Hunter was re- important contributions to science and to medical litera- cently dead, Cline and Astley Cooper were at Guy's ture ; he met with no reverses, and yet as a story his Hospital ; but in his second year of study he became life lacks plot. It is simple, straightforward, unevent- a pupil of Everard Home, whose sister John Hunter ful, and for us points a moral only as it shows what bad married, and so he came to inherit the tradition one form of success means, and what sort of a man and the purpose of the Hunterian school. was this one — reputed the most notable surgeon, Mr. Home, afterwards Sir Everard Home, was sur- scientist and scholar combined that the first half of geon to St. George's, aud so it camo about that to this our century produced. famous hospital Brodie became attached early. There Let us quickly glance over the tale as it is told by he Berved his apprenticeship, and there he worked as Mr. Timothy Holmes,''' and then return to look at teacher and surgeon through the most active years of Brodie as he was at his personality, interesting and his long professional life. There he was two years as important; at his—habits, his tastes, his methods, his a pupil and six months as house surgeon, when he re- friends ; at that thing which we moderns are calling signed to teach anatomy in Mr. Wilson's school. his environment. So those four years constituted his work as a student In his first year of practice Brodie worked hard for pure and simple, and as a student he merits no special small fees, took a few pupils and lectured on anatomy ; mention.