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Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

      A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
      single character following the carat is superscripted
      (example: Sir Tho^s). Multiple superscripted characters
      are enclosed by curly brackets (example: Y^{rs}).





MEMOIRS OF JOHN ABERNETHY.


[Illustration:

  Sir Tho^s. Lawrence P.R.A.      Cook.

  Y^{rs}. most sincerely
  John Abernethy]


MEMOIRS OF JOHN ABERNETHY,

With a View of His Lectures, His Writings, and Character;
with Additional Extracts from Original Documents,
Now First Published;

by

GEORGE MACILWAIN, F.R.C.S.

Author of "Medicine and Surgery One Inductive Science,"
&c. &c. &c.


   "The evil that men do, lives after them:
   The good is oft interred with their bones."

                                 SHAKSPEARE.

Third Edition.






London:
Hatchard and Co. Piccadilly.
1856.

The Author reserves the right of publishing a Translation of this Work
in France.

London:
Printed by J. Mallett, Wardour Street.




                             TO THE MEMORY
                                  OF
                            JOHN ABERNETHY,
                       THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED
                                  BY
                          ONE OF HIS NUMEROUS
                                  AND
                           GRATEFUL PUPILS,

                              THE AUTHOR.




PREFACE

TO

THE FIRST EDITION.


In submitting to the Public a Memoir of a great man, it may naturally
be expected that an author should endeavour to convey to them some idea
of the associations, or other circumstances, which have prompted the
undertaking.

My father practised on the borders of a forest; and when he was called
at night to visit a distant patient, it was the greatest treat to me,
then a little boy, to be allowed to saddle my pony and accompany him.
My father knew the forest nearly as well as his own garden; but still,
in passing bogs in impenetrable darkness, the more refined topography
of a forester would be necessary; and it was on one of these occasions
that I first heard two words, "Me-ward" and "Abernethy:" the one from
our forester guide, which I have never heard since, and the other
which I have heard more frequently perhaps than any. The idea I then
had of Abernethy was, that he was a great man who lived in London. The
next distinct impression I have of him was derived from hearing my
father say that a lady, who had gone up to London to have an operation
performed, had been sent by him to Mr. Abernethy, because my father
did not think the operation necessary or proper; that Mr. Abernethy
entirely agreed with him, and that the operation was not performed;
that the lady had returned home, and was getting well. I then found
that my father had studied under him, and his name became a sort of
household word in our family. Circumstances now occurred which occupied
my mind in a different direction, and for some years I thought no more
of Abernethy.

As long as Surgery meant riding across a forest with my father, I
thought it a very agreeable occupation; but when I found that it
included many other things, I soon discovered there was a profession
I liked much better. Some years had rolled away, when, one afternoon
in October, about the year 1816, somewhat to my own surprise, I found
myself, about two o'clock, walking down Holborn Hill, on my way to
Mr. Abernethy's opening lecture