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SKETCHES OF CHERVIN.

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man. I can support all this." This was no vain boast. He spread his essays, reports, letters, memoirs, &c., on every side; and eventually he was compensated by the Academy, after a long and vehement discussion, affirming his propositions. A few years after, the Monthyon Prize was decreed him, and in 1832 he was chosen a member of the Academy by a large majority, the editors of several journals also freely opening their pages for the propagation of his opinions. He had the pleasure, also, of finding the Government modifying their quarantine system in 1835 and 1839, and the still greater one, of finding opinion setting in stronger and stronger against the system altogether. But he was not the man to be satisfied with half success, and continued his efforts as perseveringly as ever to the last. He lived to witness no further results of his labours, nor even to present his various documents and publications in any luminous body of doctrine, his time being, indeed, chiefly occupied in its active polemical defence.

"Chervin was, indeed, one of those models of severe morals of ancient times. His moral organization was quite different from that of the ordinary type. We may say he was an honest man in all the greatness and magnificence of the expression; for he possessed that golden flower of good faith, rectitude, and judgment which forms its base and root. When he was seen to labour, demand, solicit, even intrigue, to spare neither distance, trouble, writing, or expense, who would not have believed he was acting for himself and his own affairs, in order to obtain some reward or lucrative employment? Nothing of the kind the object of so much care was the public good. He was concerned with the advancement of science, the enlightenment of authority, the economizing the finances of the State, and the saving of millions to commerce, while he himself was in want of everything! So will his life always be a great example for men who fully devote themselves to the good of the human race, and the culture of science. There will be found an example of self-abandonment, of devotion the more striking as it is original, and so to say sui generis.

*

*

*

**

* Having neither patrimony, place, practice, nor powerful protectors, simple in his tastes, content with little, uniform in his life, he had no other affection, no other passion than that for the yellow-fever, which he had, as it were personified, and which was called his companion or heroine. All else was equal or indifferent to him. Thus he wanted for everything, for the small pension from the Academy was his only resource. During his latter years, he had to struggle with the three greatest afflictions of humanity-disease, old age, and poverty, triple Euminides, against whom men are usually devoid of energy. But Chervin was always the same. Adversity found him armed with strength and patience; there was nothing changed in his views, his habits, or his labours. No complaint or recrimination escaped him, whether in depreciation of what is, the elevation of what ought to be, or against men the most favoured by fortune. Never did he manifest jealousy or envy of his brethren, or cast a longing eye upon an opulent position. Never was he exposed to the torture of that medical bile so acrid and so corrosive in some cases. Excepting as regards the scientific point of the noncontagion of the yellow fever, he knew how to suffer and be silent."

;

He resided in a miserable garret without even the necessaries of life but who among us does not envy his honourable poverty, with his table and few chairs, his books arranged upon two planks, and his enormous dusty trunk, containing his precious documents, "collected at the price of his fortune, his rest, his health, and his life in every part of the globe," rather than the prosperous celebrity of some of his contemporaries? He was attacked with hemiplegia in 1812, and died the following year.

Larrey..

The character and services of Larrey are so well known and appreciated in this country, that we need borrow little from the sketch here drawn by his friend and colleague. It is always, however, pleasing to accumulate instances of the excellent conduct of the members of our profession; and we question if the beau-ideal of a military surgeon was ever more realized than in the character of this celebrated man.

"At the battle of Eylau he remained 30 hours without eating; and so hur ried and ardent was he in dressing wounds and giving orders, that paralysis of the bladder was nearly induced. Friends, enemies, every one, might claim his services. He saw only suffering creatures imploring the succour of art. Degree of rank in nowise decided his preferences. No matter what the epaulette, he only saw the wounded man, whose blood, poured out for his country, was equally noble and precious. After having operated on Marshal Lannes, and visited Duroc, the intimate friend of Napoleon, he would dress with equal eagerness the wounds of the lowest soldier or of the conscript of yesterday. His colleagues even, always his dearest friends, never met with preference. Our honourable confrère, M. Tanchou, tells us that, when wounded in the battle of Montmirail, he was taken to Larrey's ambulance: Your wound is a slight one,' he said, 'we have only room and straw here for bad accidents. However, they may put you in yonder stable.' The gravity of a wound was in fact the only ground of preference in his eyes.

*

*

*

The more severe and doubtful an action became, the more the activity and resources of this great surgeon multiplied-his first and only thought being the succour of the wounded. During the highest raging of the battle of Waterloo, when the fire was continuous and murderous, the author of this sketch and Larrey inet, when he exclaimed, My dear colleague, look to your wounded soldiers. Pay attention only to them.' He added, the firing is hot indeed, but let every one do his duty and all will go on well.'

6

*

*

Larrey had so little dissimulation, that one of his defects, perhaps the only one, was the high opinion he entertained of his own talent and works. He praised himself with such a good faith and confidence, but his weakness was the more excusable, as it was not without foundation, facts answering to words. Frequently a deep colossal pride, peculiar to celebrated men, is disguised without, and hidden with care; but Larrey concealed nothing. All his thoughts and words were without disguise, for he knew not how to conceal his pride at the bottom of his heart, like some who are termed modest. Oftentimes he raised a pedestal to himself with the same simplicity, the same confidence, as if he had performed the most virtuous action or the greatest sacrifice. We may sometimes smile at his simple and frank want of modesty, and at the same time admire his noble heart full of rectitude, honour, probity, and courage, a stranger to the manœuvres of personal interest, concealed under the veils of philanthropy and love of science. What he delighted in, above all things, was to protect and assist others by his counsels and his credit; so that he always regarded surgeons whom he had known, and who were a little younger than himself, as his pupils. In writing to the late M. Coutanceau, then professor at Val-de-Grâce, Member of the Academy, and author of different works, he never omitted concluding with your affectionate brother-in-law and former professor.' This was not pride or the desire of superiority, but a bond of patronage, goodwill, and reciprocal attachment, which he delighted in tightening and continuing."

6

In perusing the accounts of the lives of late and present members of our profession in France and in our own country, we have often been struck with the far larger proportion in the former nation who have raised

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HASSE AND GROSS ON PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY.

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themselves from indigence and comparatively low conditions to the highest position of professional eminence. And in the facilities which that country affords to her industrious and enterprising youth, destitute of family connections, pecuniary resources, or hospital influences, for attaining the highest offices in her power to bestow, we see an example well worthy of imitation in our own country, where a very different system of selection, or rather of succession, prevails.

AN ANATOMICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION. By Chas. Ewald Husse, M.D., Professor of Pathology, &c., at Zurich. Translated and Edited for the Sydenham Society, by W. E. Swaine, M.D. London, 1846. 8vo. pp. 400.

ELEMENTS OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY. Illustrated by coloured Engravings, &c. By Samuel D. Gross, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the Medical Institute of Louisville. 2d Edition. Philadelphia, 1845. Royal 8vo. pp. 822.

INASMUCH as it is our vocation to bring before the notice of our brethren whatever is of interest and importance in connection with the medical literature of the day, we have always considered that our readers may fairly claim from us some notice of works which, though not published, are issued by a society established expressly for the purpose of benefiting the profession by the diffusion of sound medical literature. We do not, however, consider it our duty, nor is it our intention, to criticize the proceedings of the Council of the Sydenham Society-that they have a delicate and difficult task to perform all must admit, and few will be disposed to refuse them full credit for an anxious desire conscientiously to discharge the onerous duties that have been confided to them. We hail with heartfelt satisfaction the present flourishing state of so important a Society.

The present work we have carefully examined, and hesitate not to express our conviction of its great intrinsic value and practical interest. Although our continental neighbours have led the way in the study of Pathological Anatomy, there has of late been no lack of successful labourers in this department of medical science among ourselves. But hitherto no work of a precisely similar character to the present has issued from the British press. None which appears so calculated to make morbid anatomy subservient to its true and only really useful object, the history of disease

-a knowledge of which is essential to all rational treatment. Professor Hasse's work is not a mere dry detail of the morbid appearances presented by the various tissues and organs of the body, nor, as his editor states, a mere descriptive catalogue of curiosities in morbid anatomy. The author's aim has been to make the actual knowledge of pathological anatomy subservient to an "anatomical history of disease," and thus to render it of practical utility at the bed-side.

The advantages which Professor Hasse has possessed for the preparation of such a work as the present, appear to have been considerable, and of these he has manifestly availed himself to the utmost. As a diligent student in the hospitals of Paris and Vienna, and subsequently as clinical assistant to Professor Carus, and pathological prosector in the principal hospital at Leipzig, he possessed the means of observing and collecting materials for himself, whilst, at the same time he was forming that "pathological collection," which, under his auspices, has grown into a most interesting and valuable Museum. The present treatise, therefore, differs essentially from what is commonly called a compilation. For although he has "not relied solely on his own investigations, but has largely availed himself of facts recorded by others," he has been chary of making use of other men's experience. This, perhaps, may account for some apparent deficiencies. The estimation in which the book is held in Germany is sufficiently attested by the fact that since its publication the author has had the offer of the chair of Clinical Medicine in five Universities, and now holds that vacated by Professor Schönlein at Zurich.

Before proceeding to give our readers an account of the work itself, we have only to add, that the author's reputation does not appear likely to suffer at the hands of his English translator and editor. The translation is, as a whole, very well executed. And although occasionally the version would have been improved by a less literal rendering, and further use of the pruning knife, Dr. Swaine has acquitted himself most creditably and honourably in what appears, from his preface, to have been a labour of love. The getting up of the book, like that of most of the Sydenham Society's publications, is beautiful.

The allied work, of which the title stands at the head of this article, is of a very different character from that of Professor Hasse. It is a ponderous tome of between 8 and 900 pages royal octavo, of transatlantic origin, emanating from one of the American Universities. As it has arrived at a second edition in the course of a few years, it may be presumed to be held in some estimation by our American brethren. From the author's preface it would indeed appear that it is the only system of pathological anatomy of American origin, and that this branch of medical science has hitherto been very much neglected on the other side of the Atlantic. We doubt not, therefore, that the author has conferred an important service on his countrymen by the compilation of this work. As, however, it is little else than a tolerably well executed compilation, having few or no pretensions to originality, either of design or execution, it comes before us under very disadvantageous circumstances, after the perusal of the delightful and original work of Hasse, which is beautifully written and marked throughout by a philosophical spirit and critical acumen that cannot fail to strike and captivate as well as benefit every careful reader. Moreover, there is in the work of the American Professor much that we cannot but consider as irrelevant matter. Lengthened introductions on the normal anatomy of the organs and tissues prefixed to each section treating of their morbid conditions are certainly out of place, and needlessly swell the size of the volume. Nor is it consonant with the title of the work, "Elements of Pathological Anatomy," to introduce disquisitions on such subjects as the general doctrines of Inflammation, to say nothing of many others which

1846.] DISEASES OF THE LYMPHATIC VESSELS AND GLANDS.

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are rather physiological than pathological. We hold it to be a duty in these book-making days to protest against this encyclopædical method of treating all subjects. With these preliminary remarks, we proceed to give our readers an account of the two works. We shall, however, take Professor Hasse as our guide, and our remarks will principally have reference to his work.

The present volume of Hasse's Pathology treats of Diseases of the Organs of Circulation and Respiration only, and is divided into two Parts. The first consists of five Chapters, comprising the diseases-1, of the Lymphatic Vessels and Glands-2, of the Veins-3, of the Arteries -4, Heterologous Formations in the Circulating Organs-5, Diseases of the Heart.

Having pointed out the general participation of the lymphatics in all inflammatory diseases, and that the inflammatory process is originally developed in the contiguous cellular tissue, and is thence communicated to the walls of the canals-that in consequence of the check presented by the glands, the diffusion of morbid products is much less frequent by the lymphatics than by the veins, that it is not till the irritating matters have reached the lymphatic glands, and have undergone organic assimilation that inflammatory re-action is established, Hasse proceeds to demonstrate how the lymphatic vessels are influenced by the vitiated condition of their contents. The first condition requisite for that septic inflammation which attends the absorption of morbid matters, is asserted to be a liability to transudation of the morbid contents through the parietes of the lym phatic vessels. This species of exosmosis, he thinks, is induced "partly by the immediate action of the irritative matter on the membranes of the vessels, partly by the clogging and distension of the latter, in proportion as the lymphatic glands become less permeable to the affluent lymph." Thus we find the surrounding textures saturated with the transuding fluid, at first limpid, afterwards turbid and becoming converted into pus, in the midst of which the lymphatics are found, as thin knotty cords, with thickened coats, and their internal membrane no longer smooth.

As the suppuration spreads, the lymphatic vessels are destroyed, and circumscribed abscesses are formed. In this way inflammation extends from one group of glands to another, and occasionally to the trunk of the lymphatics, even into the veins, when we have all the general consequences, of the admixture of pus with the circulating current.

The lymphatic glands frequently become inflamed, either separately, or in conjunction with the lymphatic vessels. The affection may be either acute or chronic, and of a traumatic, rheumatic, or septic nature. It may occur sympathetically from disease in neighbouring organs, or from pseudoformations, e. g., tubercle within the glands. Having briefly described the progress and effects of inflammatory action in the glands, he observes that inflammation of the lymphatic vessels and glands is a sequence of very various diseases, but especially of such as result from the introduction of noxious matters, or which represent some constitutional cachexia. The following are mentioned as the most important ways in which the lymphatic system is involved-from "poisoned wounds," "the plague," "typhus," "syphilis," "porrigo," and "elephantiasis." The inflammation of the occipital and other glands in connection with extensive porrigi