[From Petrus Franciscus Phrygius: Commentarii. I. ugduni, 1644.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY New Series, Volume II January, 1930 Number i

SIR THOMAS BROWNE, M.D.* By SIR HUMPHRY ROLLESTON, BART., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., M.D.

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND

IN Oxford it is ap­ that of his senior. Pembroke College propriate to think is just opposite to Christ Church where and speak of Sir Robert Burton (1577-1640) or “Dem­ Thomas Browne,for ocritus Junior” spent, as he says, “a healsowasastudent silent, sedentary, solitary, private here, a fellow-com­ life,” and brought out in 1621 his moner at Broadga­ “Anatomy of Melancholy,” a second tes Hall, which in and enlarged edition of which ap­ 1624, the year after peared in 1624, when Thomas Browne his matriculation, changed its name to was an undergraduate. Sir William Pembroke College in honour of Wil­ Osler, regius professor of medicine liam Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, (1904-1919) and one of his most Chancellor of the University, and, constant and eloquent admirers, in according to Aubrey, “the greatest fancy pictures Browne as perhaps Maecenas to learned men of any peer of known to Burton and even watching his time or since.” In the eighteenth his senior as he leant over Folly Bridge century Pembroke was for fourteen and laughed away depression by listen­ months the home of Samuel Johnson, ing to the ribaldry of the bargees. who wrote a life of his predecessor pre­ Further, Oxford men have been fixed to the second edition of “Christ­ prominent as editors of Browne’s ian Morals” in 1756, and so was the works;Thomas Chapman (1812-1834), Alma Mater of two of the most pop­ the first modern editor of the “Religio ular of the English Classics. A further Medici,” brought out at Oxford an association is that Johnson’s literary edition of this, by then an almost for­ style, especially in his earlier days, ap­ gotten book in 1831 when he was a pears to have been influenced by nineteen-year-old undergraduate at * A University Extension Lecture given at the Summer Meeting, Oxford, Aug. 16, 1929. Exeter College. Henry Gardiner (1815- ury” Series. John Addington Sy­ 1864), m.a. and also a member of monds (1840-1893), a Fellow of Exeter College, edited the “Religio Magdalen College, edited, with an Medici,” “A Letter to a Friend introduction, the “Religio Medici,” upon the Occasion of the Death of his and others of Browne’s works in 1886. Intimate Friend,” and “Christian Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665) who Morals” in 1845 after he had given up wrote the well-known “Observations” the idea of entering on the physic line on the “Relligio Medici” was also an and the year before he took Holy Oxford man, having been from 1618 Orders. William Alexander Greenhill to 1620 a fellow-commoner at Glou­ (1814-1894), like Browne, a scholar­ cester Hall, now Worcester College, physician, was educated at Rugby but left the university without a under Thomas Arnold, being a con­ degree. temporary and friend there of Arthur Coming of a Cheshire stock, Hugh Clough (1819-1861) the poet, Thomas Browne, the only son and who expressed the religious doubts and youngest of the four children of a struggles produced by the Oxford mercer with exactly the same name, Tractarian movement in the ’forties, was born on October 19, 1605, the year W. C. Lake (1817-1897) dean of that Bacon’s “Advancement of Learn­ Durham, A. P. Stanley (1815-1881) ing” first shed its light before the dean of Westminster, and C. J. Vaug­ public, in the parish of St. Michael- han (1816-1897) master of Rugby and Ie-Quern, Cheapside, within the sound of the Temple, and dean of Landaff; he of Bow bells; a scholar at Winchester proceeded to Trinity College, Oxford, (1616-1623), he went to Oxford in and becoming a medical man practiced 1623, and on August 5, 1624, when in Oxford until 1851, when he settled Pembroke College was inaugurated, at Hastings and soon afterwards began as senior fellow-commoner gave the working on Browne’s texts, but being first of the three orations in Latin. slow as well as thorough it was not till After taking the degrees of b.a. (1626) 1881 that Macmillan and Co. brought and m.a. (1629), he is said to have out in the “Golden Treasury” Series practiced medicine for a short time his edition of the “Religio Medici,” in Oxfordshire. In 1630 he started on “A Letter to a Friend upon the Occa­ a three years’ grand tour, first ac­ sion of the Death of his Intimate companying his rather choleric step­ Friend,” and “Christian Morals;” this father, Sir Thomas Dutton, on an at once became the standard edition on official inspection of forts and castles account of its scholarly notes, which in Ireland, and then travelling alone with the glossarial index are really on the Continent. He studied at the necessary to enable the ordinary reader University, of Montpellier, whither to understand the obsolete words and about twenty years later Thomas allusions in the text. At the time of his Sydenham (1624-1689) followed him. death Greenhill was engaged on an Then, some thirty years after William edition of Sir Thomas Browne’s “ Hyd- Harvey (1578-1657), he visited Padua, riotaphia or Urn-Burial” and the and about 1633 was at Leyden, where “Garden of Cyrus,” which was he is stated to have obtained the finished by E. H. Marshal and pub­ doctorate, but of this Sir William lished in 1896 in the “Golden Treas­ Osler failed to find any documentary confirmation on the spot. Browne’s hearing of it on December 19, 1642 m.d., it may be mentioned here, from the fifth Earl of Dorset (1622- was obtained from Oxford on July io, 1677) a fellow prisoner, when confined i637- in W inchester House by the Parliamen­ Returning to England in 1634 with tarians, sent for it in hot haste to a knowledge of six languages, and St. Paul’s Churchyard, and at a thus recalling and perhaps justifying sitting, or rather while in bed, not Johnson’s criticism of his literary only read it but from a Roman style as “a tissue of many languages,” Catholic point of view penned “Ob­ he settled down at Old Shibden Hall, a servations upon Religio Medici: oc­ house in a park, near Halifax in York­ casionally written by Sir Kenelme shire. Here, it would appear from his Digby, Knight,” which when eventual­ own rather quaintly worded statement, ly printed ran to 124 pages or three- he wrote the “Religio Medici” about quarters of the size of the “Religio 1634-1635; for in it he remarked: Medici,” the whole tour de force being “I have not seen one revolution completed within twenty-four hours. of Saturn, nor hath my pulse beat This critical review was circulated in thirty years,” the second half of the manuscript, and Browne, hearing from sentence explaining to the ordinary Crooke that it was intended for man the meaning of the earlier part; publication, wrote on March 3, 1643 and again more briefly: “Now for politely begging Digby to delay this my life it is a miracle of thirty until he had seen an authorized copy; years.” It was, he said, written “with Digby replied with equal courtesy, no intention for the press” but was even expressing regret for the hasti­ “composed at Ieisurable hours for ness of his remarks which, however, his private exercise and satisfaction;” were by that time in type and act­ this no doubt pleasantly occupied ually saw the light at the end of the time while he was recruiting March, and so before the appearance his health, impaired during his travels in the same year of the first authorized by disease and shipwreck, for, con­ edition, with which Digby’s “Obser­ trary to what is sometimes assumed, vations” and the Browne-Digby he did not practice his profession at correspondence are often bound up. this time. Several copies of the manu­ According to Aubrey, Digby while in script, differing somewhat in their durance vile “practised chymistry wording, though none of these sur­ and wrote his booke of Bodies and vives, were lent by Browne to his Soule (1644) dedicated to his eldest friends, who also transcribed them, son.” and of these last there are seven in Samuel Johnson in his Life of Sir existence (Keynes). Thus in the course Thomas Browne suggested that the of six years it became known, and anonymous and unauthorized editions eventually in 1642 Andrew Crooke, were really arranged by the author a publisher, had it printed without in order to see how the “Religio the author’s permission or name; Medici” would be received; Keynes this was so successful that a second considers this “sharp practice” quite unauthorized edition appeared in the incompatible with our knowledge of same year. Browne’s character; but after all His contemporary Sir Kenelm Digby this would appear to be a somewhat harmless experiment. It may indeed The “Religio Medici” has been the be suspected that, as the offending favorite reading and guide of many pirate, Andrew Crooke, was entrusted more than double the age of the with the authorized edition, Browne author, and seems to enforce his ad­ may not have been altogether dis­ vice (“Christian Morals,” Part in, pleased and certainly appears to have Section vin) to “anticipate the virtues forgiven the offence rather readily. of age, and live long without the infirm­ It at once attracted general atten­ ities of it.” Its taking title has been tion, and was translated into Latin imitated on many occasions; Keynes in 1644, into Dutch in 1665, French tabulates no less than eighty-five, in 1668, and much later in 1746 into dating from Lord de Cherbury’s “De German. The title alone challenged Religione Laici,” 1645, to “Religio comment, for in those days medical Militis” by Austin Hopkinson in 1923. men were regarded as being without In 1636 Browne settled in Norwich, religion. It certainly did not escape acting on the invitation of influential criticism; while Gui Patin thought well friends in Norfolk, and remained there of it, the Holy See put it on the“ Index for the rest of his life. He married in expurgatorius.” Osler considered it 1641 Dorothy (1621-1685), fourth no slight compliment to the author daughter of Edward Mileham of Burl­ that he should have been claimed ingham St. Peter, and by thus act­ by one as a Catholic (the editor ing inconsistently with the bachelor of the Paris Latin translation (1644) opinions expressed in the “Religio made by John Merry weather), de­ Medici,” such as “Man is the whole nounced by another (Buddaeus of world, and the breath of God; woman Jena) as an atheist, while a member the rib and crooked piece of man, ” and of the Society of Friends (Samuel “I could be content that we might Duncon) regarded him as a likely procreate like trees,” exposed himself convert. The modern view, voiced by to some chaffing criticism from the wits, Gosse and C. Whibley, is that it was the especially in James Howell’s “Epis- work of an artist rather than of a tolae Ho-elianae: Familiar Letters,” theologian. No physician had a nobler 1655, when in the next year his anti- conception of his calling, but this matrimonial dicta became public prop­ did not save him from the disputatious erty. In spite of his opinions when a Alexander Ross (1591-1654), who in celibate his children ran into double “Medicus Medicatus, or the Physician’s figures, probably twelve (Williams). Religion cur’d by a Lenitive or Gentle” Of these Edward (1644 *-1708) the Potion, 1645, rated him and also Ken- eldest, who encouraged by his father elm Digby, just as he had attacked travelled much abroad, left a journal Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Wil­ of his experiences in Paris in 1664, liam Harvey. This ex-schoolmaster, and in 1685 published the record of whose heavy artillery did not touch his more extended journeying during Browne’s delicate fantasies, was men­ 1668 and 1669; he was elected a tioned and thereby perhaps saved from oblivion by Samuel Butler in * The late Sir Norman Moore argued that he was born in 1642, as he entered Trinity Hudibras: College, Cambridge, in 1657, and thirteen There was an ancient sage philosopher years was an unusual whereas fifteen was a That had read Alexander Ross over. common age to enter the University. Fellow of the Royal Society in 1667 Of Thomas Browne’s three daugh­ when he was only twenty-three, an ters, Elizabeth, wife of Major George honor which was rather intriguingly Lyttleton, was instrumental in mak­ denied to his encyclopedic father (vide ing public some valuable information p. 11), was physician-in-ordinary to about her father as well as being King Charles 11, elected physician to responsible for the publication of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on Sep­ some of his posthumous works. Al­ tember 7, 1682, six weeks before his though he had a large family and father’s death, and as a crowning twenty-eight grandchildren the male honor was president of the Royal line became extinct in 1710 with College of Physicians of London from the death of his grandson Thomas; 1704 until his death. He must not be but as a granddaughter, Frances confused with another president of the Fairfax, married the ninth Earl of College some sixty years later, the Buchan, the family is still represented. volatile Sir William Browne (1692- For forty-five years Browne led a 1774) who described his career in the philosophic and philanthropic life in modest terms: “Behold an instance of the quiet backwater of the cathedral human ambition not to be satiated but town, in spite of the Civil War and by the conquest of three, as it were, the visitations of the plague (1665— medical worlds; lucre in the country, 1667) and smallpox (1669). He had a honour in the College, pleasure at large circle of friends and correspond­ medicinal springs!” Like Edward, ents, such as John Evelyn (1620-1706) though no relation, he was educated the diarist, who visited him in October, at Cambridge and stood up for his 1671 and described his house and Alma Mater in the following circum­ garden as “a paradise and cabinet stances: about 1716 George 1 bought of rarities, and that of the best collec­ the library of John Moore (1646-1714), tions, especially medals, books, plants successively Bishop of Norwich and and natural things,” John Aubrey Ely, and presented it to Cambridge; by (1626-1697) the gossipy annalist a curious coincidence a regiment of Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) whose cavalry was despatched to Oxford at name is kept green by the Ashmolean the same time, an event which was com­ Museum in this the senior University, memorated by Joseph Trapp (1679- Sir William Dugdale (1605-1686), 1747) of Wadham College, Oxford, Ashmole’s father-in-law, the most poet and pamphleteer: prolific author of the monumental The King, observing with judicious eyes, “Monasticon Anglicanum,” Henry The state of both his Universities, Power (1623-1668) of Christ’s College, To one he sent a regiment, for why? Cambridge, and of New Hall, Eiland That learned body wanted loyalty; near Halifax, who was a follower of To th’ other he sent books, as well discerning William Harvey in the experimen­ How much that loyal body wanted learning. tal investigation of the circulation. Sir William Browne’s riposte was Robert Paston, first Earl of Yarmouth, perhaps more effective: who made Evelyn and Browne ac­ quainted, and Nehcmiah Grew (1641- The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse, For Tories own no argument but force; 1712) the botanical physiologist. With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent, When civil war broke out Browne’s For Whigs admit no force but argument. sympathies were wholly with the Royalists, though he did not take “he was never seen to be transported any part more active than declining with mirth or dejected with sadness; to contribute in 1643 to the funds of always cheerful, but rarely merry.” the Parliamentarians. On September His days were full and must have 28, 1671, King Charles 11 paid a been happy, and with an insatiable state visit to Norwich, and after a curiosity he was a great field natural­ banquet proposed to confer the honor of ist. His early travels had made him knighthood upon the mayor, Thomas cosmopolitan and a lover of his Thacker, who, however, modestly beg­ fellowmen, and he urged his children, ged that the honor might go to the girls as well as boys, to go abroad, most distinguished man in the city and and so share his advantages. pointed to Browne, who, after the “Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enqui­ royal approval of this noble gesture, ries into very Many received Tenents, thereupon knelt down to arise Sir and commonly presumed Truths,” Thomas. by far his largest work, appeared in Our impressions of Sir Thomas 1646 and admittedly was “composed Browne’s appearance would naturally by snatches of time, as medical voca­ be largely guided by his reputed tions and the fruitless importunitys portraits, the authenticity of which of uroscopy would permit him,” and has been critically considered by Miss thus was the product of work spread Tildesley, who shows that only four over many years, probably including can be regarded as accurately repre­ those spent in continental travel. senting him. Dressed quietly but Consideration of common errors, pro­ somewhat after the cavalier fashion vided they are those of others, have with a moustache and small chin always received due attention, and beard, he somewhat resembles William a list of thirty-seven of Browne’s Harvey and William Shakespeare, forerunners and successors in the and indeed there has been some task of correcting vulgar errors is discussion whether or not one of the given in Keynes’ “Bibliography of portraits was of the Bard of Avon or Sir Thomas Browne.” Five authors: of the Sage of Norwich. He had Laurent Joubert (1579), Mercurius auburn hair and his complexion was (1603), Bachot (1626), James Prim­ “answerable to his name,” and ac­ rose (1639) and D’Espagne (1643), cording to Gosse “a curious idio­ preceded Browne in the publication syncrasy was an effect of his thin of books dealing with vulgar errors. dark skin, for blush after blush would To those appearing after Browne’s mantle over his face on slight occasion publication two may be added to and often without any observable Keynes’ list: “Medical, Philosophical cause at all. Whitefoot attributed and Vulgar Errors of Various Kinds, this to Browne’s modesty, but per­ Considered and Refuted” by John haps it was merely physical.” He Jones, m.b., Printed for T. Cadell seems to have been uniformly serene, jun. and W. Davis, London 1797, and according to his friend, the and “Popular Medical Errors” by Reverend John Whitefoot, Rector of J. B. Harrison, m.d., f.r.c.s., 1851. Heigham, a parish in Norwich, who Among works which appeared after had known him since 1637, his gravity “Pseudodoxia Epidemica” was natural without affectation, and e7ribr]pi.ov: or Vulgar Errours in Prac­ tice Censured” which came out anon­ crets of Mans Body disclosed . . . ymously in 1659 and has been with a Refutation of Doctor Brown’s ascribed to Obadiah Walker (1616- Vulgar Errors” 1651, and John Robin­ 1699), master of University College, son, a Norwich Doctor, published in Oxford, who in 1689 was ejected as 1656 in Latin “Endoxia” and two a papist from his post and was sup­ years later in English “A Calm Venti­ ported in the ten remaining years lation of Pseudodoxia Epidcmica. ” of his life by his pupil Dr. John It is perhaps rather rash, at least for Radcliffe (1650-1714), the generous medical men, to write such books, for benefactor to the University of Oxford. on the one hand some of these errors The preeminence of Browne’s “Vulgar are often medical opinions of a former Errors” was responsible for a copy generation, for which, therefore, their of Obadiah Walker’s work, which professional ancestors are responsible, came into my hands some years and on the other hand the whirligig of ago, being labelled on the back time sometimes transforms the vulgar “Vulgar Errors, Browne.” Its con­ medical errors of one period into the tents of course were different from scientific truths of a subsequent one. that of Thomas Browne’s work and Jacobi rather sarcastically remarked: the preface dealt with some of his “The medicine of every period of his­ critics, which is worth quoting as tory is sure to filter into what euphe­ showing an anticipation of what is mistically is called the brains of the lay usually regarded as a modern expres­ community.” sion: it said of these opponents, Enlightened as he was in many “The disease they suffer from is respects, Browne was by no means the spiritual rickets whereby their free from errors as common, and by heads swell beyond due proportions.” modern standards as absurd, as any As a naturalist and a medical man he exposed; he was a firm believer in Browne, perhaps inspired to some magic, and was carried away by the extent by Francis Bacon’s “Novum alchemistic revelations of his fellow Organum” (1620), recognized that practitioner in Norwich, Arthur Dee the prevalent error of the time was (1579-1651), the son of the better the obsequious obedience to tradi­ known John Dee (1527-1608), the tion which prevented observation and astrologer. None of us is infallible, correction of most obvious mistakes and the most learned are sometimes handed down from Pliny and others the most gullible, perhaps because of a bygone age. He tried to induce they rely more on authority than his readers to consult nature instead on experimental investigation; Casau- of relying on the written word. Though bon set an example of simple faith discursive and abounding in odd in alchemy; Sir Kenelm Digby enthu­ digressions, “Vulgar Errors” was a siastically proclaimed the powers of courageous book of considerable “the sympathetic powder”; George originality. It was translated in­ Berkeley (1685-1753) Bishopof Cloyne, to Dutch, German, Italian, and considered the most learned and wisest French, and aroused some hostile of men, advocated tar water as a but inefficient criticism; Alexander panacea; and there are not a few mod­ Ross returned to the charge with ern instances of this human trait. In “Arcana Microcosmi or the hid Se­ 1664 Browne gave “expert” evidence against two unfortunate women, Rose seventeenth century. On October 19, Cullender and Amy Duny, accused of 1905 the tercentenary of his birth, a witchcraft, and thus aided most ma­ statue of Sir Thomas Browne, ex­ terially in their conviction and execu­ ecuted by Henry Pegram, a.r.a., tion. It might be thought strange that was unveiled in the open part of Nor­ he should have believed in witchcraft, wich known as the Haymarket by the not only because of his criticism of late Lord Avebury (1834-1913), per­ others’ vulgar errors, but because haps better known as Sir John Lub­ being a wide reader he was prob­ bock, who in 1871 brought in the Act of ably cognizant of the growing incre­ Parliament establishing the August dulity of the existence of witches, Bank Holiday (St. Lubbock’s day) and familiar with Reginald Scott’s and twenty years later made public book “The Discoverie of Witchcraft” his list of “The Hundred Best Books. ” (1584) “the object of which was to The late Sir Clifford Allbutt, in put an end to the cruel persecution thanking Lord Avebury, said that, of witches.” John Webster’s “Dis­ as Sir Thomas Browne was great as a playing of Supposed Witchcraft” in man of science, greater as a naturalist, 1677, five years before Browne’s death, and greater still as a man of letters, clearly indicates that there was in­ it was with singular fitness that Lord credulity about witches. On the other Avebury, who was a great man of hand, as pointed out by Knott, science, a great naturalist, and no twenty years after the trial at Bury less renowned as a man of letters, St. Edmunds no less than sixty witches should preside at the celebration. were discovered (or invented) in one “Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial or a year by Matthew Hopkins, the witch­ Discourse on the Sepulchral Urns finder, all of whom were executed. lately found in Norfolk” and “The Browne’s own opinion, expressed when Garden of Cyrus or the Quincunciall he was thirty, remained unchanged: Lozenge or Network Plantations of “They that doubt of witches do not the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, only deny them, but spirits, and are Mystically Considered with Sundry obliquely and upon consequence a Observations” were both published in sort, not of infidels, but of atheists. ” 1658. In “Hydriotaphia” he was one In 1904, when the monument to Sir of the first of the moderns to revive Thomas Browne at Norwich was the philosophic discussion of what is being arranged, there was a discussion now cremation. “The Garden of Cy­ whether or not in view of Browne’s rus,” not being so characteristic of action in regard to the witches’ trial his best style, and in fact the most and his apparent inhumanity it was difficult of his works, is not so well fitting that this plan should be adopted; known. By the word “quincunx” was one correspondent went so far as to say meant an arrangement of plants in that his record was “stained with groups of five, and Browne discourses innocent blood” and that if any mem­ learnedly of ancient gardens. orial was to be erected it should com­ “A Letter to a Friend upon the memorate his innocent victims; it Occasion of the Death of his Intimate was no doubt an error to judge him Friend,” published posthumously in by the ethics and beliefs of the 1690, was probably written about twentieth rather than by those of the ten years before his death, and is closely connected as regards its matter fools, but, if rightly timed, the honour both with “Urn Burial” and with of wise men, who have not the in­ the commencement of “Christian firmity, but the virtue of taciturnity, Morals.” It shows his charmingly and speak not out of the abundance, sympathetic attitude to the sick and but the well weighed thoughts of dying, and was evidently drawn from their hearts. Such silence may be his experience as the medical attend­ eloquence.” ant of the unknown consumptive “Certain Miscellany Tracts,” thir­ whose “deliberate and creeping prog­ teen in number, were published in ress unto the grave” he so well 1683; they were originally letters portrays. Some, and it is not surprising, to his friends, Nicholas Bacon, John rank it as the most appealing and Evelyn, Sir William Dugdale, and attractive of his writings; it is freer others, and were selected out of than others of his best known “many disordered papers, ’’about the writings from words or expressions future of which, as far as was then so unfamiliar or obscure as to pull known, Browne had not left any the reader up and drive him to the directions as to their publication or glossary. suppression; T. K. Monro, however, “Christian Morals,” intended to quotes from a letter written by Browne be a continuation of the “Religio to Aubrey in 1673 saying that he Medici,” an idea with which he had had “some miscellaneous tracts which toyed for forty years, was published may be published.” The duty of posthumously in 1716 at Cambridge, bringing out the “Tracts” was per­ and was probably not meant to be formed by Thomas Tenison (1636- issued in that form. It was the work 1715) who had been “Upper Minis­ of an old man and, it has been ter” of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich surmised, was actually begun when (1674-1680) and thus “had the happi­ the author was seventy years of age. ness to have been, for some years, It lacks the naive autobiographical known to” Browne, was at the time charm of the “Religio Medici,” and, rector of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, as Gosse said, “He has ascended the London, and in 1695 became Arch­ pulpit in a cassock and thunders bishop of Canterbury. In the foreword his ‘Christian Morals’ at us as from to the “Tracts” Tenison wrote if the a height above our heads.” Addington reader “is not pleased with them, Symonds suggests that in parts it he seemeth to me to be distemper’d might be a caricature of the style'of the with such a niceness of imagination “Religio Medici,” and, if the author­ as no man is concerned to humour.” ship was not established, an imitation The order of the “Tracts” is first of the earlier classic by another hand. those concerned with plants, then It may well have been made up of those relating to animals, men, and paragraphs expanded from occasional matters of a various nature. Thus notes in his commonplace book; and “The Plants Mentioned in Scripture,” yet some of the maxims are attractive, which occupies half the small octavo for example: “To forgive our enemies volume, is followed by Tract 11: is a charming way of revenge,” and “Of Garlands and Coronary or Gar­ when on the subject of taciturnity: land-Plants,” and the third tract “Think not silence the wisdom of deals with the subject “Of the Fishes Eaten by our Saviour with His Discip­ man’s pickaxe, and his skull then les after His Resurrection from the disappeared until in 1847 it was pre­ Dead.” “Hawks and Falconry: An­ sented, probably by a Dr. Lubbock, cient and Modern” engaged his atten­ to the Museum of the Norfolk and tion, and he wrote on language, Norwich Hospital, where it was kept. on artificial hills or tumuli, on the Who removed the skull from the coffin cities of the Dead Sea, and on “The in 1840 is not certainly known; but Exposition of the Prophecy: When Canon Meyrick evidently thinks it New England [the North American was a churchwarden (Robert Fitch), Colonies] shall Trouble New Spain.” “whose acquisitive complex was ab­ In twro circumstances at least his normally developed even for an anti­ writings had a curiously prophetic quary,” who may have taken it at the bearing on his own death and remains. same time as the brass coffin plate In “A Letter to a Friend” he said: which was found in a secret well of his “When there are no less than three desk after his death in 1895. In 1905 hundred and sixty-five days to deter­ when a quatercentenary celebration mine their lives in every year . . . of his birth was held in Norwich that [any person] should wind up the late Sir William Osler, a life­ upon the day of their nativity, is long and devoted Browne-ite, pro­ indeed a remarkable coincidence.” vided a handsome casket and pedestal This came to pass in his own case, to contain his skull, and here it for he died on his birthday, October remained for visitors who made the 19, 1682, in his seventy-seventh year. pilgrimage until 1922, when an ar­ He thus was like Shakespeare who rangement was concluded between was born on St. George’s day, April the governors of the Norfolk and 23, 1564, died on St. George’s day Norwich Hospital on the one part 1616, and puts into the mouth of and the vicar and churchwardens Cassius in “Julius Caesar” the words: of St. Peter Mancroft on the other This day I breathed first; time is come round, that the skull should be reinterred And where I did begin, there shall I end; with an inscription in the church My life has run his compass. near the supposed site of Sir Thomas Julius Caesar, v, 3. Browne’s grave; it was also agreed In “Hydrotaphia: Urn Burial” he that before the skull was handed over remarked that: “To be knaved the hospital authorities should be (stolen) out of our graves, to have presented with a plaster cast of the our skulls made drinking-bowls, and skull, which should not be exposed our bones turned into pipes, to delight in any way to the public as a relic of Sir and sport our enemies, are tragical Thomas Browne. The inscription abominations escaped in burning marking the spot of the reinterment of funerals.” And in the dedicatory the skull in the chancel was written by epistle to this, which has been de­ the Bishop of Norwich, the Right Rev­ scribed as his most characteristic erend Bertram Pollock, k.c.v.o. : . work, he writes: “But who knows O caput augustum, Petro custode sepulchri the fate of his bones, or how often Sit tibi pax; nomen vivat in urbe; vale. he is to be buried.” About August 10, 1840 the lid of his leaden coffin was The skull was buried in the chancel accidentally broken open by a work­ near the supposed site of the coffin on July 4, 1922. On January 26 with exotic words, fashioned with previously the skull had been sent daring, and yet in good accord with to Sir Arthur Keith at the Royal their origin.” But the odd words College of Surgeons of England for and conceits he delighted in have expert examination so that a perma­ perhaps, as Gosse suggests, given nent record might be obtained; the him a reputation for humor which results of this examination and more he neither desired nor deserved. research into Sir Thomas Browne’s Humor and wit are different, and ancestry and portraits were published William Petty thought Browne one by Miss Miriam L. Tildesley, re­ of the most witty writers. He is often search worker, Royal College of Sur­ obscure, as his admirer Charles Lamb geons of England Museum. It was hinted in speaking of “the beautiful settled that it was the skull of the obliquities of the ‘Religio Medici.’” sage of Norwich, in spite of its His writings do not appeal to every­ forehead so markedly receding as to one, some regard them as straining suggest defective development of the after effect, whereas others, such as part of the brain intimately connected Saintsbury, can hardly speak too with the powers of concentration highly of them. De Quincey spoke of and discrimination. The appearance his “mighty rhetoric,” and regards of the skull was thus so unexpected him and Jeremy Taylor as the great­ and disappointing to his admirers est English exponents of rhetoric. that an American surgeon, frankly A lover of nature with an insatiable incredulous, declared that he “should curiosity, a catholic collector, he made class it as that of a Peruvian.” many observations and was obedient In connection with the Norwich to the maxim of his senior William Memorial, the peregrinations of his Harvey (1578-1657) “to search and skull, and ceremonies concerned there­ study out the secrets of nature by with, it is rather ironical to recall way of experiment”; in his “odd his own words: “At my death I prowlings about the tombs of those mean to take a final adieu of the long dead” he discovered and inves­ world, not caring for a monument, tigated adipocere or “grave wax” history or epitaph, not so much as formed in certain circumstances in the bare memory of my name to be dead bodies and thought to be due found anywhere, but in the universal to the transformation of protein into Register of God.” fat. He is also said to have “made Browne has been described as think­ practical experiments upon the proc­ ing with his imagination, and that as ess of congelation and the nature a result his writings belong to the of bubbles” (J. A. Symonds). It domain of literature rather than of would thus appear that he might well philosophy or science (Hertford). His have been a Fellow of the Royal style and quaint language have en­ Society, which was established in riched the world with many familiar 1662; and it has been suggested sayings, and of the numerous new that his exclusion was intentional and words he introduced some are in con­ due to his reputation as an infatuated stant use, such as medical, literary, hal­ astrologer, and also perhaps to his lucination, antediluvian, and umbrella. style, for the Society demanded from Whibley says: “His writings sparkle its Fellows a precise and brief state­ ment and set its face against elaborate mystery of death, and he has been exposition. Browne, like Pascal, re­ called “the laureate of the forgotten garded science and religion as quite dead” (Gosse). As a writer his style distinct realms and considered that is quaint and picturesque and it is authority though a dominating influ­ not so much for what he says as for ence in religion had no place in science. the manner in which he expresses The finest passages in Browne’s our thoughts, aspirations and specula­ writings were those inspired by the tions that he lives.

References

Gosse, E. Sir Thomas Browne, English Men Moore, N. Medicine in the British Isles of Letters. Lond., Macmillan, 1905. Oxford Univ. Press, 1908, p. 71. Herford, C. H. Introduction to Browne’s Osler, W. An Alabama Student and Other Religio Medici. Everyman’s Library, 1906. Biographical Essays. Oxford Univ. Press, Jacobi, A. Monism in medicine. In Medical 1908, pp. 248-277. Addresses, 1909, 6: 104. Symonds, J. A. Essay on the Religio Medici. Keynes, G. A Bibliography of Sir Thomas In Modern English Essays, London, Browne, Kt., m.d. Cambridge, Univ. 1922, 3: 107. Press, 1924. Tildesley, M. L. Sir Thomas Browne, His Knott, J. Brit. M. J., 2: 1045, 1906. Skull, Portraits and Ancestry, Reprinted Meyrick, F. J. Sir Thomas Browne: the from Biometrica, xv, and issued only to story of his skull, his wig, and his coffin subscribers, Cambridge, 1923. plate. Brit. M. J., 1: 725, 1922. Whibley, C. Essays in Biography, London, Monro, T. K. Early Editions of Sir T. Macmillan, 1913, pp. 277-311. Browne. Reprint from Rec. of Glasgow Williams, C. The Pedigree of Sir Thomas Bibliograph. Soc., 1923. Browne. 1902 (Pamphlet).