1734. He was the author of several medical treatises, one of which

was entitled _Physical Experiments upon Brutes to discover a Method of dissolving Stone in the Bladder by Injections; to which is added a course of Experiments with the Lauro-Cerasus; on Fumes of Sulphur_, etc. 8vo. Lond., 1746. His researches on the action of cherry laurel water are said to have suggested the use of prussic acid in medicine.[1017] JOHN FOTHERGILL, M.D. (1712-1780), was a distinguished botanist, who collected a great number of rare plants from all parts of the world. WILLIAM CRUIKSHANK (1745-1800) was an anatomist who discovered urea. STEPHEN HALES (1677-1761), an experimental physiologist and pathologist, produced dropsy by injecting water into the veins of animals, and investigated by experiments on animals the relative movements of the blood. ANTONIO VALSALVA (1666-1723), a great Italian anatomist, held the professor’s chair at Bologna and wrote a valuable treatise upon the ear and its anatomy. GIOVANNI SANTORINI (1681-1737) was a Venetian anatomist whose investigations in the anatomy of the larynx, nose, face, etc., have immortalised his name in connection with several structures of those parts. GIOVANNI B. MORGAGNI (1682-1772) was the great founder of pathological anatomy. He was a pupil of Valsalva. His famous book on pathological anatomy was not published until he was in his 79th year. He was the author of the maxim that “observations should be weighed, not counted.” The researches in morbid anatomy carried out by Morgagni formed an epoch in the history of modern medicine, which may indeed be said to rest on the two methods of Sydenham and Morgagni. The work of the Italian anatomist was complementary to that of the English Hippocrates, who neglected anatomy. Morgagni and the “Encyclopædic Haller,” whom we are next to consider, were two of the brightest medical lights of the century. ALBERT VON HALLER (1708-1777), surnamed “the Great,” was a Swiss physician of Berne, who was not only a distinguished scientist, but a man of letters and a famous poet. He studied comparative anatomy at Tübingen; in 1725 he removed to Leyden, which at that time was the first medical school in Europe. He visited England in 1727, and made the acquaintance of Sir Hans Sloane, Cheselden, Dr. James Douglas, and other eminent persons. Leaving London, he went to Paris, but having been detected by the police in dissecting in his lodgings, he had to leave France, and he went to Basle to continue his investigations in anatomy; there he studied mathematics under John Bernoulli, and, having imbibed a taste for botany, studied the flora of Switzerland, on which he afterwards published a work. In 1729 he returned to Berne and lectured on anatomy; invited in 1726 to accept the professorship of anatomy, surgery, and botany in the newly founded University of Göttingen, he removed to that city, and by his influence a botanical garden, an anatomical theatre, a school of surgery and midwifery were established there. In 1747 he published his most valuable work, the _Primæ Lineæ Physiologiæ_ which was used as a text-book in medical schools. VAN SWIETEN (1700-1772), the pupil of Boerhaave, established the first clinical institution in Germany. He was with Sanchez the first to use corrosive sublimate in medicine. To his exertions it was due that the teaching of medicine was greatly improved in Austria. J. F. MECKEL (1724-1774) was an anatomist whose researches on the nerves, blood-vessels, glands, etc., have greatly contributed to our knowledge of their physiological functions. J. C. PEYER (1653-1712) and J. C. BRUNER (1653-1727) discovered the glands in the intestines which are known to this day by their names. A. PACCHIONI (1665-1726) described the glands we call in his honour “Pacchionian.” W. COWPER (1666-1709) discovered those which bear his name. M. NABOTH (1675-1721) described the structures we call ovula Nabothi. H. MEIBOM (1638-1700) discovered the glands of the eyelids named after him. WALTER CHARLTON, M.D. (1619-1707), anatomist, a voluminous writer, was to some extent a follower of Van Helmont. THOMAS FULLER, M.D. (died 1734), published several pharmacopœias and an account of eruptive fevers, with several other works. NEHEMIAH GREW, M.D. (born about 1641), wrote _The Anatomy of Plants, with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants_, which Sprengel calls _opus absolutum et immortale_. Hallam says,[1018] “no man, perhaps, who created a science has carried it further than Grew; few discoveries of great importance have been made in the mere anatomy of plants since his time.” His great discovery was the sexual system of plants; “that the sexual system is universal in the vegetable kingdom, and that the dust of the antheræ is endowed with an impregnating power.”[1019] He was the first to obtain sulphate of magnesia from the Epsom waters, and to investigate its properties. His treatise on Epsom salts was published in 1697. WILLIAM BRIGGS, M.D. (died 1704), was famous for his “skill in difficult cases of the eye.” EDWARD TYSON, M.D. (died 1708), wrote on anatomy; he was the Carus of Garth’s _Dispensary_, and the discoverer of “Tyson’s Glands.” WILLIAM PITCAIRN, M.D. (1711-1791), was an accomplished botanist. He lived in the Upper Street, Islington, where he had a botanical garden five acres in extent, stocked with the scarcest and most valuable plants. He introduced into St. Bartholomew’s Hospital a much freer use of opium in the treatment of disease, and especially of fevers, than had hitherto been customary, and that with the greatest benefit to the patients. PETER SHAW, M.D. (1694-1763), greatly facilitated the study of chemistry in England by his translations of the chemical works of Stahl and Boerhaave, as well as by his own works. He edited the works of Bacon and Boyle, and published a number of books on medicine and chemistry. WILLIAM HUNTER, M.D. (1718-1783), was an earnest and devoted anatomist and obstetrician. He was a pupil of Cullen, and was so successful a practitioner that he expended £100,000 upon his house and anatomical collection, etc. The Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow was formed from this collection. The famous John Hunter was his younger brother. THOMAS DIMSDALE, M.D. (1711-1800), a celebrated promoter of inoculation for small-pox, acquired a great reputation and immense wealth by the process. Catherine II. of Russia paid him enormous sums for successful inoculations, and gave him a barony. WILLIAM HEBERDEN, M.D. (1710-1801), lectured on Materia Medica at Cambridge. Dr. Munk[1020] gives an interesting extract from one of Heberden’s lectures on Mithridatum and Theriaca, the famous classic medicines; he proves that the only poisons known to the ancients were hemlock, monk’s-hood, and those of venomous beasts, and that they had no antidotes for these. He says that the first accounts of powerful poisons concealed in seals or rings, poisonous vapours in gloves and letters, etc., are idle inventions of ignorant and superstitious persons. BUFFON (1707-1788) was the celebrated French naturalist to whom “we owe our first clear and practical connection of the distribution of animals with the geography of the globe.” GEORGE ARMSTRONG in 1769 opened the first children’s hospital in Europe; he was the physician who first devoted special attention to the diseases of children. Armstrong was a London man, and died 1781. JOH. E. GREDRING (1718-1775) was a German physician who was the first to investigate “the seat, cause, and diagnosis of insanity.”[1021] JAMES CURRIE (1756-1805) advocated the cold-water treatment of typhus fever patients, and thus introduced a method of treatment which in one form or another is used at the present time for reducing the temperature of the body in such cases. Currie determined the temperature by the thermometer. LADY WORTLEY MONTAGU (1690-1762) is famous in the annals of medicine for her courageous adoption of the Turkish practice of inoculation for small-pox in the case of her own son. By her zealous advocacy she was instrumental in causing the practice to be introduced into England in 1721. Dr. Keith having subjected his son to the operation, experiments were conducted upon criminals by Maitland, and these having been successful, the Prince of Wales and the royal princesses were inoculated by Mead. On behalf of the Almighty, whose province was supposed to be trespassed upon by these and similar proceedings, the practice was violently opposed by the clergy and others. EDWARD JENNER (1749-1823) introduced the practice of vaccination as a preventive of small-pox. He commenced his investigations concerning cow-pox about the year 1776. The practice of inoculation with the virus of small-pox, which had been introduced into England through the suggestion of Lady Wortley Montagu, indirectly led Jenner to his grand discovery. His attention was excited by finding that certain persons to whom he attempted to communicate small-pox by inoculation were not susceptible to the disease; on pursuing his inquiries he found that these persons had undergone cow-pox—a complaint common among the dairy-servants and farmers in Gloucestershire, and that these people were aware that cow-pox in some way was a preventive against the small-pox. Local medical men had long been acquainted with this idea, but had paid no attention to it, considering it merely a popular and groundless belief. Jenner’s genius, however, led him to divine the truth of the matter and turn it to practical advantage. The disease which affects the udder of the cow was found to be inoculable in the human subject, and could be propagated from one person to another, rendering those who had passed through the complaint secure from an attack of small-pox. Having confided the fact of this discovery to some medical friends, it was taken up in 1796 by Mr. Clive, of St. Thomas’s Hospital, who introduced vaccination into London. Vaccination was adopted in the army and navy, and Jenner was honoured by professional distinctions and a parliamentary grant of £20,000. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and his fame and the benefits of his discovery were rapidly extended to continental nations.