Company, to obtain an appointment in their military service, and a much higher qualification is demanded than was deemed sufficient during the war; and yet it is astonishing-considering the expense of a medical education and outfit, the difficulty of obtaining appointments, and the miserable remuneration which is made for their services-that qualified surgeons should so eagerly desire to connect themselves with the military profession in India; and it can only be because there are, from the crowded state of the profession, so few opportunities of money-getting in England, that they are willing to submit to so many humiliating conditions, on receiving the paltry appointment of assistant surgeon in the Hon. East India Company's military service. To those medical students, whose desire to wear a red coat and sword, and to be thought military men, is the ne plus ultra of their ambition, it may be useful to know, that one of the prizes granted to the best proficients in medical and surgical science, at University College, London, is an assistant surgeoncy in the East India Company's military service!! CHAPTER VI. SKETCHES OF EMINENT LIVING PHYSICIANS. · Bright— Sir H. Halford-Sir J. Clark-Drs. Chambers THE task which we have proposed to ourself is one surrounded by a variety of difficulties. Many objections naturally occurred to our mind with reference to the propriety of writing sketches or memoirs of eminent living men; but all these considerations yielded to a stern sense of duty. Medical men are, in every sense of the word, public property. The position which they hold necessarily raises them on a height for observation and criticism; and the moment they wish to evade inquiry, that moment they cease to be objects of public regard. The members of the medical profession are guardians of the public health-the arbiters of life and death. The lives of those that employ them are placed in their power; and the fate of those nearest and dearest to us are often dependent on their knowledge and exertions-their discrimination and judgment. Surely then it is for the advantage of society that the physician and surgeon's character and intrinsic worth should be properly weighed, in order that the public may be enabled to make a selection of those in whom the most implicit confidence may be placed. Were this honestly, fearlessly, and impartially executed, the reputation of medical men would not depend, as it often does, on the adventitious circumstances of connection, public caprice, and other arts commonly had recourse to in order to attract the notice of the crowd. Then merit alone would lead to preferment; and neither the gorgeous equipage or splendid establishment would be considered as a passport to practice. We have nothing to do with the private lives or histories of men. We do not envy the feelings of that man who could enter the domestic circle for the purpose of collecting material to cater to the vitiated taste of the public. We deal only with them as public men; we view them in this capacity; we point out the position they hold in society; for what peculiar talent they are distinguished; and whether they are entitled to the support and patronage of those from whom alone they can expect it. Many allowances ought to be made for the medical profession generally. It is a duty, the exercise of which is not attended with the most pleasing intercourse. It views human nature in its most despicable, and too often pitiful moments, when it is almost impossible to please, and too often sure to offend. Well may Dr. Johnson have defined the practice of medicine to be "a melancholy attendance on misery, a mean submission to peevishness, and a continual interruption to rest and pleasure." The chamber of the rich generally affords a scene of pain and distress:-the feelings are harassed; the disposition tried; and the physician who is the harbinger of health ought not to approach the bed of the afflicted with the indifference of a stoic, or with the meretricious sympathy of a hireling. He ought to be a gentleman in his manners, and a man of tenderness and feeling in his general deportment. That this is the general characteristic of the medical profession must be admitted by all who have been thrown much into their society. That in so large a body of men some should be found coarse and brutal in their conduct is not to be wondered at; but it cannot be questioned that the great majority are distinguished for the refinement of their manners, the vigour and enlargement of their minds, and the kindliness and gentleness of their feelings. Having made these preliminary observations, we shall proceed to the discharge of the duty imposed upon us. The name of SIR HENRY HALFORD, the President of the Royal College of Physicians, naturally occurs to our mind as the physician to whom we ought imprimis to introduce to the notice of our readers. This gentleman holds the most exalted position in the profession to which the most ambitious can aspire. To be made a baronet-to have been for many years the chief court physician-to be, for life, president of the first medical corporation in the United Kingdom-are, indeed, honours rarely, in this country, conferred on any one single individual. The question for the public to decide is this-and we should, en passant, observe, that it is one frequently asked-does Sir Henry Halford owe his position to the circumstance of his connections, and other adventitious causes, or is he really entitled, by merit, to be placed as he is at the head of the medical profession? Without wishing to give the president of the College of Physicians any credit for talent and learning to which he cannot fairly lay claim, we have no hesitation in stating, that he is deservedly entitled to the rank he holds in the medical world, and to the confidence placed in him by the public. Like most men in an elevated position in society, he has exposed himself to the attacks and malevolence of those who are ever ready to vilify the great and the good. A recent painful transaction, which we shall not more particularly specify, has given Sir Henry Halford's enemies some slight semblance of justice for the constant personal attacks levelled against his pro |