Notes on medical matters and medical men in London and Paris / by David W. Yandell.

  • Yandell, David Wendel, 1826-1898.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on medical matters and medical men in London and Paris / by David W. Yandell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [FROM THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.] Art. IV.—Notes on Medical Matters and Medical Men in London By David W. Yandell, M.D. In my last letter I said a few words about England's great surgeon, Robert Liston, but I had only time then to give my first impressions concerning this eminent man. In return- ing to him and dwelling more minutely on his character and history, I hope you will not consider that I am spending too much time upon one individual. If you could see the honor and respect with which Mr. Liston is treated by his col- leagues, pupils, and the medical profession at large, and then see him among his patients and at the operating table, and more than all, witness his kindness to our young country- men, you would not believe that I could easily say too much about him. Professor Gibson gives a characteristic descrip- tion of Liston in his Rambles in Europe—of his passion for rowing, and for domestic animals, particularly his enormous black cat Tom, who was not unfrequently mounted along- side his master in the splendid chariot, and a constant guest at his hospitable board—of his tall, robust, and elegantly formed person; his handsome features and penetrating eye; his modesty, playfulness, and benevolence. Dr. G. had been told that he was rough and uncouth in his manners, a perfect ursa major—a mere operator or carver without judgment or discretion; but his quick eye soon saw in him a surgeon who, ere long, would rise to the top of the profession in the first city in the world. Mr. Liston is certainly eccen- tric; but the prejudices which were excited by his eccen- tricites have yielded to the sterling qualities which shine in him as a surgeon and a gentleman. He retains his fondness for rowing, which in his youth was so great that his father put him to the study of anatomy in order that he might be fitted for a nautical life, if his passion for the sea should continue after he had completed his professional studies. He did not go to sea, however, and his time is now so entirely employ-