Reminiscences of an Eminent Edinburgh Professor.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 184, 25 December 1886, Page 4

Reminiscences of an Eminent Edinburgh Professor.

xßom the second volume of " The Life of Sir Robert Christison, Bart," late Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh, &c. (Blaskwood & Sons), we extract tho following passages : — The Body of Burke the Murderer, In one of his addresses to his class Professor Chrißtiaon related the following incident : " Of serious acts of general insubordination approachiug in character to riot, there have been in my time only two which have given your predecessors a name and which rumour has greatly exaggerated. The first, now almost forgotten, happened in •January, 1829, when the body of the archmurderer Burke was brought to the anatomical rooms after execution to be dis sected, according to his sentence. Two thousand Btudents took it into their heads that they should like to see it; but the college bailie—the name of the civil magistrate, who, under our old constitution, had charge of the police of the university—took it into his head to resist this wish. Presently, he found it necessary to back his resistance by a force of police. A conflict, of course, at once arose. The I police at last were hemmed in at the Anatomy Corner, and matters began to look uncommonly serious. No aid was asked, from the professors ; even Dr. Munro was not communicated with ; but a pro- ! fessor who chanced to be in the quadrangle volunteered the simple advice to put down the disturbance by granting the students their wish. The irate magistrate at firat treated his adviser as a ringleader, and even threatened to commit him on the spot. But better thoughts prevailed. The students were allowed to file past the dead criminal that afternoon, and the privilege waa extended during the next two days to 40,000 of the populace, who, like the students, bobehaved with the utmost decorum." Some Curious Definitions. Writing in his journal on April 10, 186S, the Professor gives the following account of some of the blunders made at an examina tion : — "The Faculty of Art Examiners of medical students are full of amazement at the prevalent ignorance of English among those who were subjected to examination the other day. One, who was asked to define what a hypothesis is, wrote 'it is a machine for diawing water, and another 1 that it is something to put under a dead body.' A candidate who was asked to say what Galileo and Copernicus were famous for, and what he had to tell about them, answered ' that they were famous Italian paiwtere; that their works, especially those of Copernicus, were to be found in uveiy fine gallery of pictures; that he had hiu^ulf seen and admired several; und th-it thifc painter's principal piece, 'The Scapa Goat,' was one of these.' Another candidate was not sure about Copernicus, but aaid that Galileo was principally famous for having committed (ivomurdera in tho course of his life. Another, who was asked the derivation of tho word idea, said it was compounded of id —'that,' and ea— 'those.' Professor Kelland, who was appealed to sb to whether he had ever in his experience met with anything worse than this last answer, told us —' Yes. At Cambridge, a man who was asked what an idoa was, replied that ho aupposed it was the feminine of idiot.' " Carlyle Among the Professors. Under date the 15th of April, 1566, we have tiie following with reference to Carlyle and senatuq symposium : ~ " 1 saw a goud deal of Thomas Carlylo here last week, and found him a simplohenvred straightforward man, with all tho iu^enioua felicity and humouv in conversation which one would anticipate fr m nis writings : but I was aorry to observe that his physical powers are not retained on a level with those of the mind. He evidently greatly enj Dyed our senatus symposium, at whiuh the new-made LLlD.'s were present. MaclaLran was in great force and very luuLy in his choice of themes. Blackie was just boisterous enough to carry off his peculiar ppoci©3 of humour Ramsay, the geolo^i^t, sing a capital quiz of his great friend Sir Roderick for returning to his patron the Russian Emperor, from the Ural, without finding for him any 'coal' in any 'hole.' Sir Win. Stirling Maxwell, as Rector of St Ais'ire-.v's, was also a guest, and seemed not less delighted than Carlyle. Clearly they hnd a congress of Edinburgh professors something very different from a conventicle, and from variouequaiters I hear of their surpriso and pleasure."

A Portrait of Disraeli. On the '25th of October, ISG7, Professor Christian was invited to dine with Lord Advocate Gordon to meet Mr Disraeli. Thi<* is his description of the di°tinguiehed v cruest;: — " Disraeli seemed at first a shy, rathor silent man ; but after the ladies left the table, and the conversation became general, he put hi'? horns out of the shell, and took ample «hare in what passed. Punch, bv whose caricatures he is best known, sadly misrepreFents hie face and figure ; he is a tall and rather large man with massive features, every component of which is on a large cicale, the mouth especially, which iB such as will satisfy even Syme and his dogma agouti greatness being measurable by the ratio of that ieatura. His conversation, us one may well suppose, is full of good matter and enlivened by happy easy diction, and he is a rare anecdotiat ; he is extremely grave, rarely smiles, and still more raiely laughs ; nevertheless he was fairly overcome in the drawins-room by Lord Neavos'e two Fon&p, the l Origin of Man in a Monad,' and 1 The Permissive Bill.'

Sir William Gull and the Deaf Man. I In an account of a dinner at Sir William Gull'b in 1873 tho subjoined passage occurs :— " Sir William told lie the following delicious tale of stupid unreasoning faith in quacks:—An elderly man consulted him about stom?ch complaiote, but there was a formidable obstacle to diagnosis in the patient being horn-deaf. ' What"do you have for dinner?' roared S'r William into his right lung. •Oh no !" was the reply, 'plenty of that—two nailes regularly after b'eakfast, and two moie betore dinner.' How long do you lie abed in the morning?' Well, doctor, I shall he «xty-ninethia day three weeks.' Without further parley the doctor gave Him some simple prescription the form and manuscript of which he seemed much to admire for a little: and then, offering his fee, he retired. But at the door he turned around, and, in the loud rattling tones of one long very deaf, called out, ' Doctor, can you cure deafness?' Sir William bowed, shook his bead, and made his lips express 'No.' 'I thought ho ! You have been very kind to me. Thereforo J make you welcome to this' prescription,' which he pulled from his'pocket, adding, ' Ie cured me !' "

Sabbatarianism. The following extract from the Professor's Journal (May 17, 1864) shows that he has no sympathy with the Sabbatarians :—: — " The Presbytery made me a member of Aseombly last year without my consent; bnt I wan drawn away to the Medical Council immediately after the Assembly

-p- ; — ; if— i — . met., Thiß year they have ro-eiected,me» alßo without any intimation of their wishes. I mmb r try to do my duty ; but they kuow that my other occupations will prevent me from being that example to others which I endeavour to chow in other capacities. Ifervenfcly hope that during my presence there will be no nonsense talked about Sunday trains, or Sunday promenades, or opening botanic gardens on (Sunday or any other Sabbatarianism ; for, as an honest man, having decided opinions on these matters, I do not think I can sit still and let it be inferred that I am in favour of shutting up the whole world on Sunday .. within four walls "