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SBAs and EMQs for
Human Disease (Medicine)
in Dentistry
SBAs and EMQs for
Human Disease (Medicine)
in Dentistry

Oluyori K. Adegun BDS MSc CILT MFDS RCS(Ed)

PhD PGCAP FHEA
Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in Clinical Human Health and Disease, Institute
of Dentistry, Bart’s and London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary,
University of London
Speciality Registrar in Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, University College London Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust

John A.G. Buchanan Hons BSc MSc MB BS FDS RCPS (OM)

Glasg FDS RCS Eng. FRCP
Clinical Senior Lecturer/​Honorary Consultant in Oral Medicine and Lead for
Quality Assurance at Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry,
Queen Mary University of London/​Bart’s Health NHS Trust

Farida Fortune MB BS FDS RCS Eng. FRCP PhD CBE

Professor of Medicine in Relation to Oral Health/​Honorary Consultant in Oral Medicine,
Clinical and Diagnostic Oral Sciences, Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and
Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London

1
3
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First Edition published in 202
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 PREFACE

Throughout the world, advances in medicine combined with an ageing population and an increasing
emphasis on healthcare delivery as an outpatient and in primary care has resulted in an increasing
number of patients with complex medical conditions—​who are also taking multiple medications—​
seeking dental treatment from dental care practitioners in general practice. Whereas previously
these patients would have been treated on an inpatient basis, there is an increasing emphasis on
outpatient treatment.
These changing trends underline the importance that dental healthcare providers in both general
and specialty practice have a sound and up-​to-​date knowledge of human disease (medicine) in
dentistry and clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.
During the years of teaching human disease (medicine) in dentistry to undergraduate dental
students, we have regularly been asked to recommend reading and self-​assessment resources
for self-​directed learning to facilitate preparation for examinations. For the former a repertoire
of textbooks, case reports, and serial journal articles specifically written for medicine in dentistry
exists. However, for the latter there remains no specifically prepared self-​assessment material to
refer students to. This impacts on their ability to engage in formative learning, reflect, and identify
their learning needs, as well as prepare for their all-​important summative examinations. To address
this gap, we have written a dedicated self-​assessment material, which:
 Is presented using current assessment formats (i.e. SBAs and EMQs), which are currently
considered to be the formats of choice for integrated knowledge tests on the human disease
(medicine) in dentistry
 Covers specific learning outcomes for the human disease course as outlined in the General
Dental Council’s (GDC) Preparing for Practice document
 Incorporates clinical scenarios designed to test the recognition of oral and systemic signs and
symptoms, and selection of the most appropriate investigations and management, all of which
should foster the development of clinical problem-​solving skills
 Facilitates formative learning by ensuring each question is accompanied by the answer and
the rationale using clear facts explaining why the correct response is right and why the other
responses are less plausible. This approach will help evaluate individual learning needs thereby
identifying areas which may require further reading
 Is written by specialists experienced in the design and delivery of the human disease (medicine)
in dentistry curriculum and are familiar with the common presentations, pathologies, and
dilemmas encountered while working within the specialty
We hope that you will find this formative assessment resource to be stimulating and interesting and
that it will help you to develop the necessary knowledge base, problem-​solving, and clinical skills
vi Preface

required to deliver high-​quality and safe patient care in your everyday practice as a dental healthcare
practitioner. It also anticipated that exposure to a variety of clinical signs and symptoms from the
different systems in the body while using this book will contribute towards the knowledge of the
most appropriate clinical specialty to refer a patient to for further care.
Oluyori K. Adegun, John A.G. Buchanan, and Farida Fortune
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the editorial staff of Oxford University Press who encouraged us to
produce this self-​test learning resource in which we have endeavoured to incorporate clinical
scenarios designed to test reasoning skills and develop the cognitive processes required to navigate
the complexities of medicine in relation to dentistry. We are particularly grateful to Geraldine
Jeffers and her team for their close support in getting this project underway. Our sincere thanks to
Dennis Ola, Otto Mohr, and Alina Roser who provided constructive feedback on draft questions.
Finally, profound thanks go to our families for their moral support and endless patience while we
were writing this book.
 CONTENTS

Abbreviations xi

 Single Best Answer (SBA) Questions 

2 SBA Answers, Rationale, and Further Reading 39

3 Extended Matching Questions (EMQs) 3

4 EMQ Answers, Rationale, and Further Reading 53

Index 77
 ABBREVIATIONS

ABPA Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis

ACE Angiotensin-​converting enzyme
ACTH Adrenocorticotropic hormone
AD Addison’s disease
AED Automated external defibrillator
AF Atrial fibrillation
ALL Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
AML Acute myeloblastic leukaemia
ANCA Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies
APTT Activated partial thromboplastin time
ASA American Society of Anesthesiologists
BAD Bipolar affective disorder
BCR Breakpoint cluster region
BMD Bone mineral density
BMS Burning mouth syndrome
BPH Benign prostatic hyperplasia
BT Bleeding time
CDT Carbohydrate-​deficient transferrin
CHHD Clinical Human Health and Disease
CN Cranial nerves
CNS Central nervous system
COPD Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
CRP C-​reactive protein
CT Computed tomography
DEXA Dual-​energy X-​ray absorptiometry
DM Diabetes mellitus
DMARD Disease-​modifying antirheumatic drug
DS Down’s syndrome
EMQs Extended Matching Questions
ESR Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
FBC Full blood count
xii Abbreviations

FNAC Fine needle aspiration cytology

GABA Gamma-​aminobutyric acid
GCA Giant cell arteritis
GDC General Dental Council
GDP General dental practitioner
GFR Glomerular filtration rate
GGT Gamma-​glutamyl transpeptidase
GH Growth hormone
GHRH Growth hormone releasing hormone
GP General practitioner
GVHD Graft-​versus-​host disease
HDL High density lipoprotein
HHD Human Health and Disease
HHT Hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia
HZ Herpes zoster
IBD Inflammatory bowel disease
IBS Irritable bowel syndrome
ICU Intensive care unit
INR International normalized ratio
LCH Langerhans cell histiocytosis
LDL Low-​density lipoprotein
MC Microscopic colitis
MCV Mean cell volume
MM Multiple myeloma
MPNST Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour
MRONJ Medication-​related osteonecrosis of the jaw
MRSA Methicillin-​resistant Staphylococcus aureus
MSH Melanocyte-​stimulating hormone
NBCCS Naevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome
NICE National Institute for Clinical Excellence
NK Natural killer
NSAID Non-​steroidal anti-​inflammatory drugs
NSCLC Non-​small cell lung cancer
OCD Obsessive-​compulsive disorder
PCD Primary ciliary dyskinesia
PEA Pulseless electrical activity
PK Pyruvate kinase
PTH Parathyroid hormone
RAS Renin-​angiotensin system
 Abbreviations xiii

RBC Red blood cell

RPR Rapid plasma reagin
SBA Single best answer
TSC Tuberous sclerosis complex
TSH Thyroid-​stimulating hormone
UK United Kingdom
UKMI UK Medicines Information
UMN Upper motor neurone
VDRL Venereal Disease Research Laboratory
VF Ventricular fibrillation
VN Virchow node
VT Ventricular tachycardia
VZV Varicella zoster virus
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
his audience to regard benevolence, and the love of truth, as the
impulses which could alone urge on, and sustain, industry in
cultivating the "Science" of our profession, had observed that,
"unfortunately, a man might attain to a considerable share of public
reputation without being a real student of his profession." There
have been indeed too many examples of that, as also of those who,
after years of labour, have failed to obtain a scanty living.
Abernethy had been a real and laborious student in science, and
he was now reaping an abundant and well-deserved fruition. Few
surgeons have arrived at a position so calculated to satisfy the most
exacting ambition. Although the full extent and bearing of his
principles were by no means universally understood, yet the general
importance of them was so, and in some measure appreciated. In a
greater or less degree, they were answering the tests afforded by
the bedside in all parts of the world.
Ample, therefore, as might be the harvest he was reaping in a
large practice, he was enjoying a still higher fruition in the kind of
estimation in which he was held. He had a high reputation with the
public; one still higher amongst men of science. His crowded
waiting-room was a satisfactory evidence of the one, and the
manner in which his name was received here, on the Continent, and
in America, a gratifying testimony of the other. He was regarded
much more in the light of a man of enlarged mind—a medical
philosopher—than merely as a distinguished surgeon.
From the very small beginnings left by Mr. Pott, he had raised
the school of St. Bartholomew's to an eminence never before
attained by any school in this country. I think I may say that, in its
peculiar character, it was at that time (1816) unrivalled.
Sir Astley Cooper was in great force and in high repute at this
time; and, combining as he did the schools of two large hospitals,
had, I believe, even a larger class. Both schools, no doubt,
endeavoured to combine what is not, perhaps, very intelligibly
conveyed by the terms practical and scientific; but the universal
impression, assigned the latter as the distinguishing excellence of Mr.
Abernethy, whilst the former was held to express more happily the
characteristic of his eminent contemporary.
Whatever school, however, a London student might have
selected as his Alma Mater, it was very common for those whose
purse, time, or plans permitted it, to attend one or more courses of
Abernethy's lectures; and it was pleasing to recognize the graceful
concession to Mr. Abernethy's peculiar excellence afforded by the
attendance of some of Sir Astley's pupils, and his since distinguished
relatives, at the lectures of Abernethy.
As I have said, his practice was extensive, and of the most
lucrative kind; that is, it consisted largely of consultations at home.
Still, he had patients to visit, and, as he was very remarkable for
punctuality in all his appointments, was therefore not unfrequently
obliged to leave home before he had seen the whole of those who
had applied to him. The extent of his practice was the more
remarkable, as there was a very general impression, however
exaggerated it might be, that his manners were unkind and
repulsive. His pupils were enthusiastically fond of him; and it was
difficult to know which was the dominant feeling—their admiration of
his talents, or their personal regard.
Some of the most distinguished men had been of their number;
and it would be gratifying to us to enumerate the very
complimentary catalogue of able men who have been indebted for
much of their eminence and success to the lessons of Abernethy;
but as, in doing so, we might possibly, in our ignorance, omit some
names which ought to be recorded, we forego this pleasure, lest we
should unintentionally appear to neglect any professional brother
whom we ought to have remembered.
In 1812–13, the pupils had presented Mr. Abernethy with a piece
of plate, "as a testimony of their respect and gratitude." The
arrangement of the matter was confided chiefly to the present Sir
James Eyre, Mr. Stowe of Buckingham, and Mr. George Bullen. In a
very interesting letter, with which I have been favoured by Mr.
Stowe, amongst other matters hereafter to be mentioned, it is stated
that the plate was delivered at Abernethy's house on the 1st of April;
and as he had no more entirely escaped such things than other
medical men, he at first regarded it as a hoax. But when the
contents were exposed, and he discovered the truth, he became
much affected.
The regard of the pupils was always the thing nearest his heart.
On meeting the class at the hospital, he essayed to express his
feelings; but finding that he should only break down, he adopted the
same course as he had employed on another memorable occasion,
and wrote his acknowledgments, a copy of which was suspended
against the wall of the theatre.
It is due to our worthy and kind-hearted contemporary, Sir
James Eyre, to add that Mr. Stowe observes in his letter, that, of all
others, Sir James was the most zealous promoter of a movement so
creditable to all parties. Some years after this, another subscription
was commenced by the pupils for a portrait of Abernethy, which was
painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and engraved by Bromley. It was
after this engraving that Mr. Cook executed the portrait which forms
the frontispiece of the present volume. Sir Thomas, and the
engraver after him, have been most successful. He has caught one
of Mr. Abernethy's most characteristic expressions. We see him as he
often stood when addressing the anatomical class. We think it
impossible to combine more of of him in one view. We fancy we see
his acute penetration, his thoughtful expression, his archness and
humour, and his benevolence, all most happily delineated, whilst the
general position and manner is eminently faithful. In his surgical
lectures, he was generally seated; and in the lithograph, he is
represented in the position which he almost invariably assumed
when he was enunciating the proposition which is placed beneath
the engraving. It is the work of a young artist who was considered
to evince great promise of future excellence; but who, we regret to
say, died last year—Mr. Leighton.
In 1815, he had been appointed surgeon to the hospital, after
twenty-eight years' tenure of the assistant surgeoncy; a subject that
we merely mention now, as we shall be obliged to revert to it when
we consider the subject of the "Hospital System."
At the time to which we allude, lecturing had become so easy as
to appear little more than amusement to him; yet there were (we
speak of about 1816) no signs of neglect or forgetfulness. His own
interest in the subject was sustained throughout; but as his
unrivalled lecturing will be more fully described, we must not
anticipate. Few old pupils visited London without contriving to get to
the hospital at lecture time. The drudgery of the early morning
anatomical demonstration was taken off his hands by a gentleman
who performed his task with credit to himself and with justice to his
pupils.
Abernethy, at this time, in addition to a successful school, a large
and attached class, a solid and world-wide reputation, was receiving
numerous proofs that his principles were recognized; that, however
imperfectly adopted, they were gaining ground; and that if all his
suggestions were not universally admitted, they were becoming
axiomatic with some of the first surgeons, both in this and other
countries.
We think it not improbable that it was somewhere about this
period that it was proposed to confer on him the honour of a
Baronetcy. We had long been familiar with the fact; but not
regarding it as very important, and having nothing in proof of it but
the generally received impression, we omitted any reference to it in
the first edition of these Memoirs. Finding, however, more interest
attached to the circumstance than we expected, we have
communicated with the family on the subject, and have ascertained
that all the circumstances are fresh in their recollection, although
they cannot recall the exact period at which they occurred.
His first announcement of the fact to his family was at table, by
his jocosely saying: "Lady Abernethy, will you allow me to assist you
to—?" &c. Having had his joke, he then formally announced to them
the fact, together with the reasons which had induced him to decline
the proffered honour—namely, that he did not consider his fortune
sufficient, after having made what he regarded as only a necessary
provision for his family.
It is probable that his motives were of a mixed character. We do
not believe that he attached much value to this kind of distinction,
and that, had he availed himself of the offer, it would have been
rather from a kind of deference to the recognition it afforded of the
claims, and thus indirectly promoting the cultivation of Science, than
for any other reason. It was not but that he held rank and station in
the respect which is justly due to them; but that he regarded titles
as no very certain tests of scientific distinction. Enthusiastic in his
admiration of intellectual, still more of moral excellence, he had
something scarcely less than coldness in regard to the value of mere
titles; whilst he beheld, with something like repulsion, the flattery to
which their possessors were so often exposed.
There are men who have so individualized themselves that they
seem to obscure their identity by any new title. John Hunter was
scarcely known by any less simple appellation. We hardly now say
"Mr." Hunter without feeling that we may be misunderstood. It
begins to have a sound like "Mr." Milton or "Mr." Shakspeare;
Abernethy and John Abernethy are fast becoming the only
recognized designations of our philosophical surgeon, for even the
modest prefix of Mr. is fast going into disuse. Be this as it may, it is
certain he declined the honour; and to us it is equally so that he felt
at least indifferent to it; for although the good sense and good
feeling implied in the reasons alleged were characteristic, yet, had
they constituted the only motive, he might, with his abundant
opportunities, have removed that objection in a very reasonable
time, without difficulty.
It is perhaps significant of the measured interest with which Mr.
Abernethy regarded the acquisition of a Baronetcy, that the family
could not recollect the period at which it was offered. This
information, however, I obtained from Sir Benjamin Brodie, who has
kindly allowed me to record the fact in the following reply to my
inquiry on the subject.
 "14, Saville Row,
"November 16, 1854.
"My dear Sir,
"My answer to your inquiry may be given in a very few words. I
perfectly well remember the having been informed by the late Sir John
Becket that he had been commissioned by Lord Liverpool to offer Mr.
Abernethy, on the part of the Crown, the honor of being created a
Baronet, which, however, Mr. Abernethy declined.
"I am, dear Sir,
"Yours faithfully,
"B. C. Brodie.
"G. Macilwain, Esq."

He told me once of an interview he had with Lord Castlereagh,

which may, perhaps, be not out of place here. When Sir T. Lawrence
was painting the portrait, and Abernethy went to give him a sitting,
Abernethy was shown into a room where another visitor, a stranger
to him, was also waiting. The stranger, looking at a portrait of the
Duke of York, observed, "Very well painted, and very like." "Very well
painted," Abernethy replied. The other rejoined: "A good picture,
and an excellent likeness." "A very good picture," said Abernethy.
"And an excellent likeness," again rejoined his companion. "Why, the
fact is," said Abernethy, "Sir Thomas has lived so much amongst the
great, that he has learnt to flatter them most abominably." On being
shown in to Sir Thomas, Sir Thomas said: "I find you have been
talking to Lord Castlereagh."
He had not, we think, as yet sustained the loss of any member
of his family, nor hardly experienced any of those ordinary crosses
from which few men's lives are free, and which, sooner or later,
seldom fail to strew our paths with enough to convince us that
perfect peace cannot be auspiciously sought in the conduct of
human affairs. He was soon, however, to receive an impression of a
painful nature, and from a quarter whence, whatever might have
been his experience, he certainly little expected it. Long accustomed
to be listened to by admiring and assenting audiences, whether in
the theatre of the hospital, or in those clusters of pupils which never
failed to crowd around him whenever he had anything to say; he
was now to have some of his opinions disputed, his mode of
advocating them impugned, his views of "Life," made the subject of
ridicule, and even his fair dealing in argument called in question. All
this, too, by no stranger; no person known only to him as one of the
public, but by one who had been his pupil, whose talents he had
helped to mature and develop, whose progress and prospects in life
he had fostered and improved, and to whom, as was affirmed by the
one, and attested by the other, he had been a constant friend.
That this controversy was the source of much suffering to
Abernethy, we are compelled to believe; and it is altogether to us so
disagreeable, and difficult a subject, that we should have preferred
confining ourselves to a bare mention of it, and a reference to the
works wherein the details might be found; it is, however, too
important an episode in the life of Abernethy to be so passed over; it
suggests many interesting reflections; it exhibits Abernethy in a new
phase, illustrates, under very trying circumstances, the

"Virtus repulsæ nescia

Intaminatis fulget honoribus,"

and brings out in stronger relief than any other transaction of his life
the best and most distinctive traits of his character (benevolence and
Christian feeling), under temptations which have too frequently
disturbed the one, and destroyed the other.
 CHAPTER XVIII.
"Opinionum commenta delet dies, naturæ judicia confirmat."—Cicero.
"Time, which obliterates the fictions of opinion, confirms the decisions
of nature."

Whoever has wandered to the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields,

will have found himself in one of the "solitudes of London"—one of
those places which, interspersed here and there amidst the busy
current that rushes along every street and ally, seem quite out of the
human life-tide, and furnish serene spots, a dead calm, in the midst
of tumult and agitation. Here a lawyer may con over a "glorious
uncertainty," a surgeon a difficult case, a mathematician the general
doctrine of probability, or the Chevalier d'Industrie the particular
case of the habitat of his next dinner; but, unless you have some
such need of abstraction from the world, these places are heart-
sinkingly dull. You see few people; perhaps there may be a sallow-
looking gentleman, in a black coat, with a handful of papers, rushing
into "chambers;" or a somewhat more rubicund one in blue, walking
seriously out: the very stones are remarkably round and salient, as if
from want, rather than from excess, of friction. The atmosphere
from the distance comes charged with the half-spent, booming hum
of population.
Immediately around you, all is comparatively silent.
If you are in a carriage, it seems every moment to come in
contact with fresh surfaces, and "beats a roll" of continued
vibrations; or, if a carriage happen to pass you, it seems to make
more noise than half a dozen vehicles anywhere else. You may
observe a long façade, of irregular elevations—upright
parallelograms, called habitable houses; but, for aught you see, half
of them may have been deserted: the dull sameness of the façade is
broken only by half a dozen Ionic columns, which, notwithstanding
their number, seem very serious and very solitary. You may, perhaps,
imagine that they bear a somewhat equivocal relation to the large
house before which they stand. You may fancy them to be
architectural relics, inconveniently large for admission to some
depository within, or that they are intended as a sort of respectable
garniture to the very plain house which they partly serve to conceal
or embellish; or quiz them as you please, for architects cannot do
everything, nor at once convert a very ugly house into a very
beautiful temple.
But, stop there!—for temple it is—ay, perhaps, as human
temples always are, not altogether unprofaned; but not so
desecrated, we trust, but that it may yet contain the elements of its
own purification. It enshrines, reader, a gem of great value, which
nothing extrinsic can improve, which no mere art can embellish—a
treasure gathered from the ample fields of nature, and which can be
enriched or adorned only from the same exhaustless store. Though
humble, indeed, the tenement, yet, were it humbler still, though it
were composed of reeds, and covered in with straw, it would remain
hallowed to science.
It holds the monument of the untiring labour of a great master—
the rich garnerings of a single mind—the record, alas! but of some
of the obligations mankind owe to the faithful pioneer of a Science
which, however now partially merged in clouds and darkness, and
obscured by error, still exhibits through the gloom, enough to assert
its lofty original, and to foster hopes of better times.
The museum of John Hunter (for it is of that we write) is one of
the greatest labours ever achieved by a single individual. To estimate
that labour aright, to arrive at a correct notion of the man, the
spectator should disregard the number of preparations—the mass of
mechanical and manipulatory labour which is involved—the toil, in
fact, of mere collection; and, looking through that, contemplate the
thought which it records; the general nature of the plan; the manner
in which the Argus-eyed Author has assembled together various
processes in the vegetable creation; how he has associated them
with their nearest relations in the animal kingdom; and how he has
traced the chain from link to link, from the more simple to the more
compounded forms, so as to throw light on the laws dispensed to
Man. The spectator should then think of the Hunterian portion of the
museum as the exhausting harvest of half a life, blessed with no
greatly lengthened days; a museum gathered not in peaceful
seasons of leisure, nor amid the ease of undiverted thought, but
amidst the interrupting agitations of a populous city—the persistent
embarrassments of measured means—the multiform distractions of
an arduous profession—the still more serious interruptions of
occasional indisposition—and, finally, amidst annoyances from
quarters whence he had every right to expect support and sympathy
—annoyances which served no other purpose but to embitter the
tenure of life, and to hasten its termination.
Our space will not allow us to dwell more on this subject or the
Museum just now. But where is our excellent conservator—where is
Mr. Clift, the assistant, the friend, and young companion of John
Hunter? He, too, is gathered to his rest. He, on whose countenance
benevolence had impressed a life-long smile—he who used to tell us,
as boys, so much of all he knew, and to remind us, as men, how
much we were in danger of forgetting—is now no more. How kind
and communicative he was; how modest, and yet how full of
information; how acceptably the cheerfulness of social feelings
mantled over the staid gravity of science. How fond of any little
pleasant story to vary the round of conservative exposition; and
then, if half a dozen of us were going round with him the
"conticuere omnes," when, with his characteristic prefatory shrug, he
was about to speak of Hunter. Then such a memory! Why once, in a
long delightful chat, we were talking over the Lectures at the
College, and he ran over the general objects of various courses,
during a succession of years, with an accuracy which, if judged of by
those which had fallen within our own recollection, might have
suggested that he had carried a syllabus of each in his pocket.
 We had much to say of Mr. Clift; but, in these times of speed,
there is hardly time for anything; yet we think that many an old
student, when he has lingered over the stately pile reared by John
Hunter, may have paused and felt his eyes moistened by the
memory of William Clift.
When Mr. Abernethy lectured at the College, there was no
permanent professor, as is now the case; no Professor Owen, of
whom we shall have to speak more in the sequel. Both the
professorship of anatomy and surgery, and also that of comparative
anatomy, were only held for a comparatively short time.
It is not very easy to state the principle on which the professors
were selected. The privilege of addressing the seniors of the
profession has never, any more than any other appointment in the
profession, been the subject of public competition; nor, unless the
Council have had less penetration than we are disposed to give them
credit for, has "special fitness" been a very dominant principle.
Considering the respectability and position of the gentlemen who
have been selected, the Lectures at the College of Surgeons, under
the arrangements we are recording, were certainly much less
productive, as regards any improvement in science, than might have
been reasonably expected.
The vice of "system" could not be always, however, corrected by
the merits of the individual. One result, which too commonly arose
out of it, was, that gentlemen were called on to address their seniors
and contemporaries for the first time, who had never before
addressed any but pupils. It would not, therefore, have been very
wonderful, if, amongst the other difficulties of lecturing, that most
inconvenient one of all should have sometimes occurred, of having
nothing to say.
Mr. Abernethy was appointed in 1814, and had the rare success
of conferring a lustre on the appointment, and the perhaps still more
difficult task of sustaining, before his seniors and contemporaries,
that unrivalled reputation as a lecturer which he had previously
acquired. As Mr. Abernethy had been all his life teaching a more
scientific surgery, which he believed to be founded on principles
legitimately deducible from facts developed by Hunter; so every
circumstance of time, place, and inclination, disposed him to bring
Mr. Hunter's views and opinions under the review of the audience at
the College, composed of his seniors, his contemporaries, and of
pupils from the different schools. He was, we believe, equally
desirous of disseminating them amongst the one class, and of
having them considered by the others. At this time, no lectures of
Mr. Hunter had been published; and Mr. Abernethy thought that, to
understand Hunter's opinions of the actions of living bodies, it was
expedient that people should have some notion of what Mr. Hunter
considered to be the general nature of—"Life."
We hold this point to be very important; for all experience shows
that speculation on the abstract nature of things is to the last degree
unprofitable. Nothing is so clear in all sciences as that the proper
study of mankind is the Laws by which they are governed. Yet we
cannot, in any science, proceed without something to give an
intelligible expression to our ideas; which something is essentially
hypothetical.
If, for example, we speak of light, we can hardly express our
ideas without first supposing of light that it is some subtle substance
sent off from luminous bodies, or that it consists in undulations; as
we adopt the corpuscular or undulatory theory. It would be easy to
form a third, somewhat different from either, and which would yet
pretend to no more than to give a still more intelligible expression to
phenomena.
Now this is, as it appears to us, just what Mr. Abernethy did. He
did not speculate on the nature of life for any other reason than to
give a more intelligible expression to Mr. Hunter's other views. At
that time there was nothing published, showing that Mr. Hunter's
ideas of life were what Mr. Abernethy represented them to be; they
might have been remembered by men of his own age, but this was
not very good for controversy; and as that was made a point of
attack35, it is well that the since collected "Life and Lectures of John
Hunter," by Mr. Palmer, have given us a written authority for the
accuracy of Abernethy's representations.
In theorizing on the cause of the phenomena of living bodies,
men have, at different times, arrived at various opinions; but
although not so understood, it seems to us that they all merge into
two—the one which supposes Life to be the result of organization, or
the arrangement of matter; the other, that the organization given,
Life is something superadded to it; just as electricity or magnetism
to the bodies with which these forces may be connected. The latter
was the opinion which Mr. Abernethy advocated as that held by Mr.
Hunter, and which he honestly entertained as most intelligibly and
rationally, in his view, explaining the phenomena.
That such were really the views held by Mr. Hunter, a few
passages from the work, as published by Mr. Palmer, will show.
"Animal and vegetable substances," says Mr. Hunter, "differ from
common matter in having a power superadded totally different from
any other known property of matter; out of which various new
properties arise36." So much for a general view. Next, a reference to
particular powers: "Actions in animal bodies have been so much
considered under a chemical and mechanical philosophy, that
physiologists have entirely lost sight of Life;" again showing how
correctly Abernethy had interpreted Hunter's notion of the necessary
"Key," as Abernethy phrased it, to his views; Hunter says: "For
unless we consider Life as the immediate cause of attraction
occurring in animals and vegetables, we can have no just conception
of animal and vegetable matter37." Mr. Hunter, in relation to the idea
of life being the result of organization, shows how faithful an
exposition Abernethy had given of his views. "It appears," says he,
"that the Living Principle cannot arise from the peculiar modification
of matter, because the same modification exists where this principle
is no more."—Vol. i, p. 221. And in the same page: "Life, then,
appears to be something superadded to this peculiar modification of
matter."
 Then as to one of the illustrations employed by Abernethy,
Hunter, after saying that he is aware that it is difficult to conceive
this superaddition, adds: "But to show that matter may take on new
properties without being altered itself as to the species of matter, it
may not be improper to illustrate this. Perhaps magnetism affords
the best illustration. A bar of iron, without magnetism, may be
considered as animal matter without life. With magnetism, it
acquires new properties of attraction and repulsion," &c.
Mr. Abernethy, as we have said, advocated similar views; and,
we repeat, founded his reason for so doing on what he conceived to
be the necessity of explaining Mr. Hunter's ideas of life, before he
could render his (Hunter's) explanation of the various phenomena
intelligible. In all of this, he certainly was expressing Mr. Hunter's
own views, with that talent for ornamenting and illustrating
everything he discussed, for which he was so remarkable.
Abernethy multiplied the illustrations by showing the various
analogies which seemed to him to be presented in the velocity, the
chemical, and other powers of Life and Electricity; and, with especial
reference to the extraordinary discoveries of Sir Humphrey Davy,
added such illustrations, as more recent achievements in chemical
science had placed within his grasp; and thence concluding it as
evident that some subtile, mobile, invisible substance seemed to
pervade all nature, so it was not unreasonable to suppose that some
similar substance or power pervaded animal bodies. He guarded
himself, however, both in his first and again in his second Course of
Lectures, from being supposed to identify Life with electricity, in a
long paragraph especially devoted to that object. In his second
Course, in 1815, he proceeded to enumerate John Hunter's various
labours and contributions to science, as shown by the Museum;
imparting great interest to every subject, and in so popular a form,
that we wonder now, when (as we rejoice to see) there are some
small beginnings of a popularization of physiology, that there is not a
cheap reprint of these Lectures.
 Keeping, then, his object in view, we cannot see how, as a
faithful interpreter of John Hunter, Abernethy could have done less;
and if any theory of life at all is to be adopted, as necessary to give
an intelligible impression to phenomena, one can hardly quarrel with
that which takes the phenomena of life on one hand, and those of
death on the other, as the means of expressing our ideas. When we
see a man dead, whom we had contemplated alive, it certainly
seems that something has left him; and whether we say "something
superadded,"—the "breath" or "Life," or by whatever term we call it,
—we appear really to express in as simple a form as possible the
facts before us. It seems to us that, after all, John Hunter did little
more; for the illustration or similitude by which we endeavour to
render an idea clear, has in strictness nothing necessarily to do with
the idea itself; any more than an analogy, however real the likeness,
or a parallelism, however close, represents identity.
We should have thought it, therefore, of all things in the world
the least likely that a representation of any theory of Hunter's should
have disturbed the harmony which ought to exist between men
engaged in scientific inquiries. It shows, however, the value of
confining ourselves as strictly as possible to phenomena, and the
conclusions deducible from them. Nothing could possibly be more
philosophical than the terms in which Mr. Abernethy undertook to
advocate Mr. Hunter's views of life. His definitions of hypothesis, the
conditions on which he founded its legitimate character, the modesty
with which he applies it, and the clearness with which he states how
easily our best-grounded suppositions may be subverted by new
facts, are very lucid and beautiful, and give a tone to the lectures (as
we should have thought) the very last calculated to have led to the
consequences which followed.

[35] "For this Hunterian Theory of Life, which

its real author so stoutly maintains, &c. is
nowhere to be found in the published writings of
Mr. Hunter."—See Lawrence's Two Lectures
(Notes).
[36] Vol. i, p. 214. Note.
[37] Vol. i, p. 217.
 CHAPTER XIX.

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there

Where most it promises."

All's Well that ends Well.

No man, perhaps, ever made a happier application of a Divine

precept to the conduct of human pursuits than Lord Bacon, when he
said that the kingdom of man founded in the sciences must be
entered like the kingdom of God—that is, as a little child.
Independently of the sublimity of the comparison, it is no less
remarkable for its practical excellence.
How many broken friendships, enmities, and heart-burnings
might have been prevented, had even a very moderate degree of
the temper of mind here so beautifully typified been allowed to
preside over human labour! How charitably should we have been led
to judge of the works of others! how measured the approbation of
the most successful of our own! No doubt, in the pursuit of truth,
there is great difficulty in commanding that combination of
fearlessness towards the world, and that reverential humility towards
the subject, both of which are alike necessary; although the one
may be more essential to the discovery of truth, the other the
enunciation of it.
To pursue truth regardless of the multiform errors and
conventionalisms, amidst which experience has generally shown
almost all subjects to have been involved; unmindful of the rebukes
and obloquy by which too often the best-conducted investigations
are opposed and assailed; and yet to let no angry passion stir, no
conviction that we are right engender an improper idea of our own
superiority, or a disregard for the claims of others; this overcoming
of the world (we had almost said) is intensely difficult, for it is in fact
overcoming ourselves. Yet we dare not say it is that of which human
nature is incapable, for there is nothing that the heart suggests as
morally right which is really impossible to us; and instances have not
been wanting of the combination of the deepest knowledge with the
most profound humility.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that if there were
anything especially calculated to bring down the cultivators of
science and literature to the level of those who are regardless of the
claims, or insensible to the attractions of either; we could hardly find
a series of facts more fatally influential than are furnished by the
disputes of men who have been employed in the cultivation of these
elevating studies. Powerful intellects in teaching the comparative
nothingness of man's knowledge seem to give great assistance in
the acquisition of humility; but how few are the intellects of such
power? The contemplation of nature, however, may, we conceive,
infuse feelings of humility, which can rarely be attained by the efforts
of intellect alone.
We have seen, in Lord Bacon, that the highest powers of
intellect afforded for a while no security against the subtle, but one
would have thought feeble, suggestions of a degrading cupidity. We
all know, in literature, how much the fruits of intellect depend on the
dominant feeling under which they are reared and nourished. Even
men like Pope and Addison, who had little in common but that which
should elevate and adorn human nature, were so dragged down by
the demon of controversy, that, commencing with little more than
the irritability of poets, they ceased only when they had forgotten
even the language of gentlemen. In the controversy in question, Mr.
Abernethy's position was a very difficult one, and one which shows
how easily a man with the best intentions may find himself engaged
in a discussion which he never contemplated; be wounded on points
on which he was most sensitive, and yet defend himself with dignity,
and without compromise of any of those principles which should
guide a gentleman and a Christian.
Mr. Lawrence was appointed Professor of Comparative Anatomy
in 1816; and we know that Mr. Abernethy hailed his appointment
with considerable interest. He was regarded as a gentleman of some
promise, and had already distinguished himself by a singularly nice,
level style of composition, as well as by careful compilation.
Nothing could seem more auspicious than such a prospect. Mr.
Abernethy was a man remarkable for the original view he took of
most subjects; a vast experience, gathered from various sources by
a mind combining vividly perceptive powers with great capacity for
reflection, a conformation well adapted for opening out new paths,
and extending the boundaries of science. Abernethy was now to be
associated with a colleague who had already manifested no ordinary
talent for the graceful and judicious exposition of what was already
known.
Nothing could have seemed more promising; nor was there
anything in the opening of Mr. Lawrence's first lecture which seemed
calculated to baulk these expectations. His exordium contained an
appropriate recognition of Mr. Abernethy, which, as we should only
mar it by extract, we give entire. Having referred to the
circumstances which immediately preceded his appointment, Mr.
Lawrence thus proceeds:
"To your feelings I must trust for an excuse, if any be thought
necessary, for taking the earliest opportunity of giving utterance to
the sentiments of respect and gratitude I entertain for the latter
gentleman (Mr. Abernethy). You and the public know, and have long
known, his acute mind, his peculiar talent for observation, his zeal
for the advancement of surgery, and his successful exertions in
improving the scientific knowledge and treatment of disease; his
singular happiness in developing and teaching to others the original
and philosophic views which he naturally takes of all subjects that
come under his examination, and the success with which he
communicates that enthusiasm in the cause of science and humanity
which is so warmly felt by himself; the admirable skill with which he
enlivens the dry details of elementary instruction are most gratefully
acknowledged by his numerous pupils.
"All these sources of excellence have been repeatedly felt in this
theatre. Having had the good fortune to be initiated in the
profession by Mr. Abernethy, and to have lived for many years under
his roof, I can assure you, with the greatest sincerity, that however
highly the public may estimate the surgeon and philosopher, I have
reason to speak still more highly of the man and of the friend, of the
invariable kindness which directed my early studies and pursuits, and
the disinterested friendship which has assisted every step of my
progress in life, the independent spirit and the liberal conduct which,
while they dignify the profession, win our love, command our
respect for genius and knowledge, converting these precious gifts
into instruments of the most extensive public good38."
This graceful exordium, so appropriate to the mutual relations of
Mr. Abernethy and Mr. Lawrence, deriving, too, a peculiar interest
from the circumstances under which it was delivered, had also the
rare merit of an eulogium marked by a comprehensive fidelity. There
is nothing fulsome or overstrained. Mr. Abernethy's well-known
excellences were touchingly adverted to as matters with which all
were in common familiar, whilst the necessarily more special facts of
his social virtues were judiciously brought out in just relief, and as an
appropriate climax, by one who appeared animated by a grateful
and personal experience of them. It is distressing to think that
anything should have followed otherwise than in harmony with that
kindness and benevolence which, whilst it forms the most auspicious
tone for the calm pursuits of philosophy, confers on them the
purifying spirit of practical Christianity.
Mr. Lawrence's first lecture consisted mainly of an able and
interesting exposé of the objects and advantages of Comparative
Anatomy to the physiologist, pathologist, medical man, and the
theologian; together with numerous references to those authors to
whom the science was most indebted. The second lecture was
devoted to the consideration and the discussion of various views
which had been entertained of the living principle, or by whatever
name we may designate that force which is the immediate cause of
the phenomena of Living Bodies.
Amongst others, those entertained by Mr. Hunter and advocated
by Mr. Abernethy were referred to; but in a tone which was not,
perhaps, best suited to promote calm discussion, and which we may
be allowed to say was unfortunate—a tone of ridicule and banter,
which was hardly suited either to the subject, the place, or the
distinguished men to whom it related; to say the least of it, it was
unnecessary. We do not quote these passages, because they are, we
think, not necessary to the narrative, and could, we think, now give
no pleasure to any party39.
In Mr. Abernethy's next lecture at the College, he still advocated
the rational nature of Mr. Hunter's views of Life; and, in a most
interesting exposition of the Gallery of the Museum, opposed at
every opportunity the views of certain French physiologists which Mr.
Lawrence had adopted.
He did this, however, without naming Mr. Lawrence; and applied
his remarks to the whole of those who had advocated the opinions
that Life was the result of organization, as a "Band of modern
sceptics."
Mr. Abernethy had, as he says, argued against a party, and
studiously kept Mr. Lawrence, as an individual, out of view. He,
however, argued roundly against the views advocated by him, and
endeavoured to show that those of Mr. Hunter, besides being at least
a philosophical explanation of the phenomena, had a good moral
tendency; although he admitted that the belief that man was a mere
machine did not alter established notions, and that there were many
good sceptics, still he thought that the "belief of the distinct and
independent nature of mind incited people to act rightly," &c.
In regard to the general influence of the state of France, he
says, "Most people think and act with a party;" and that "in France,
where the writings of the philosophers and wits had greatly tended
to demoralize the people, he was not surprised that their anatomists
and physiologists should represent the subject of their studies in a
manner conformable to what is esteemed most philosophical and
clever; but that in this country the mere opinions of some French
anatomists with respect to the nature of life should be extracted
from their general writings, translated, and extolled, cannot but
excite surprise and indignation in any one apprized of their
pernicious tendency."
There is no doubt that there was at the time, in this country, a
disposition in many people to disseminate very many opinions on
various subjects different from those usually entertained; and we
believe that this disposition was very greatly increased by the well-
intentioned, no doubt, but in our view injudicious, means employed
for the suppression of them.
We think it important to remember this; because, in estimating
fairly any books or lectures, we must regard the spirit of the time in
which they were delivered—what would be judicious or necessary at
one period, being, of course, unnecessary or injudicious at another.
In relation to the opinions of the nature of life; that which Mr.
Abernethy alleged that he intended to apply to a party, Mr. Lawrence
alleged that he held as personally applying to himself. Accordingly,
the following course of Mr. Lawrence's lectures commenced with "A
Reply to the 'Charges' of Mr. Abernethy." This lecture, which it is
impossible for any man, mindful of all the circumstances, to peruse
without pain (especially if we include the notes), is couched in
language of the most vituperative and contemptuous character:
sarcasm, ridicule, imputation of corrupt motives, by turn, are the
weapons wielded with the appearance of the most unrelenting
virulence.
Those of the audience who had heard the graceful exordium,
which we have quoted, to the first course of lectures, and which so
appropriately represented a just tribute to a great master and kind
friend, from a distinguished and favoured pupil, were now to listen
to a discourse which was so charged with various shades and
descriptions of ridicule and invective, as scarcely to be paralleled in
the whole history of literary or scientific controversy. We have
recently again perused the respective Lectures, and we are utterly at
a loss to understand how the most sensitive mind could have found
anything in Mr. Abernethy's Lectures to call for such a "Reply." As it
appears to us, its very virulence was calculated to weaken its force,
and to enlist the sympathies of people on the opposite side. We
again forbear quotation. All we have to do is to show that
circumstances of very unusual provocation, such as no man living
could help feeling most deeply, and which bore on one who was
acutely sensitive, never materially disturbed the native benevolence
of Abernethy's disposition.
The dispute, however, soon merged into matters which the
public regarded as more important. Mr. Lawrence, in the lectures
which followed, took occasion to make some remarks on the
Scriptures, which gave great offence, and led other writers to
engage in a controversy which now assumed more of a theological
than a physiological character. This, however, rather belongs to the
writings and opinions of Mr. Lawrence, than to the life of Abernethy.
We will therefore at once offer the very few observations which we
alone think it necessary to make, either in justice to Mr. Abernethy or
the profession.

[38] March, 1816. Introductory Lecture to

Comparative Anatomy. Published, July.
[39] Introduction to Comp. Anat. by W.
Lawrence, F.R.S. London, 1816.
 CHAPTER XX.

"Love all, trust a few,

Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thine own Life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech. What Heaven more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
Fall on thy head!"

All's Well that ends Well.

In reviewing the facts of the foregoing controversy, we are

anxious to restrict our remarks to such points as fall within the
proper scope of our present object. These appear to us to relate to
the mode in which Mr. Abernethy conducted his argument, as being
legitimate or otherwise; secondly, the influence the whole affair had
in developing one of the most important features in his character;
and, lastly, the impression it produced, for good or evil, on the public
mind, in relation to our profession.
We would observe, in the first place, that the difficulty of Mr.
Abernethy's position was very painful and peculiar. We are not
learned in controversy; but we should imagine that position to have
been almost without parallel. Mr. Lawrence had been his pupil. As
we have seen, Mr. Abernethy had been his patron and his friend;
and, moreover, he had been not a little instrumental in placing Mr.
Lawrence in the Professor's chair. This instrumentality could not have
been merely passive. Mr. Abernethy himself was not a senior of the
Council at that time. At all events, he was associated at the College
with men much older than himself, and must have owed any
influence in the appointment to an active expression of his wishes,
supported by that attention to them which, though not necessarily
connected with his standing at the College, was readily enough, no
doubt, conceded to his talents and his reputation. His singleness of
mind in this business was the more amiable, because, had he been
disposed to be inactive, there were not wanting circumstances which
might not unnaturally have induced some hesitation on the subject.
In the postscript at the end of Mr. Abernethy's published Lectures,
delivered at the College, we learn that, "From an early period of his
studies, Mr. Lawrence had been accustomed to decry and scoff at
what I taught as Mr. Hunter's opinions respecting life and its
functions; yet," he adds, "as I never could find that he had any good
reason for his conduct, I continued to teach them in the midst of the
controversy, and derision of such students as had become his
proselytes," &c.
This could hardly have been very agreeable. The pupils were
wont to discuss most subjects in their gossips in the Square of the
hospital, or elsewhere; and many a careless hour has not been
unprofitably so employed. On such occasions, those who were so
inclined would no doubt use ridicule, or any other weapon that
suited their purpose; and so long as any reasonable limits were
observed, Mr. Abernethy was the last person likely to take notice of
anything which might have reached him on the subject. On the
contrary, it was his excellence, and his often-expressed wish that we
should canvass every subject for ourselves; and he would enforce
the sincerity of his recommendation by advising us with an often-
repeated quotation:

"Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri."

Still, we cannot conceive that the desultory discussions at the

hospital, of which he might from time to time have accidentally
heard, could have prepared him to expect that a similar tone was to
form any portion of the sustained compositions of Lectures to be
delivered in Lincoln's Inn Fields. When, however, he found his
opinions ridiculed there, by his friend and pupil, what was to be
done? Was he to enter into a direct personal sort of controversy with
his colleague in office at the College of Surgeons?
There was everything in that course that was inexpedient and
repulsive. Was he to be silent on opinions which he knew to have
been Mr. Hunter's, and of the moral and scientific advantages of
which he had a most matured conviction? That would have been a
compromise of his duty. It was a difficult dilemma—a real case of the

"Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim."

If he avoided one difficulty, he fell into another. He tried to take

a middle course—he argued in support of the opinions he had
enunciated, and aided these by additional illustrations; and, in
contrasting them with those opinions which were opposed to him, he
endeavoured to avoid a personal allusion to individuals, by arguing
against a class, which he termed the "band of modern sceptics."
Even this was a little Charybdis, perhaps; because it had a sort of
name-calling effect, whilst it was not at all essential thus to embody
in any one phrase the persons who held opposite opinions.
His position was intensely difficult. It should be recollected that
Abernethy had always been a teacher of young men; that he had
always taught principles of surgery which he conceived to be
deducible from those delivered by Hunter; that he further believed
that, to understand Hunter clearly, it was necessary to have a
correct notion of the idea Mr. Hunter entertained of "Life;" and lastly,
that, in all his Lectures, Abernethy had a constant tendency to
consider, and a habit of frequent appeal to, what, under different
forms, might be regarded as the moral bearings of any subject
which might be under discussion. We readily admit that, usually, in
conducting scientific arguments, the alleged moral tendencies of this
or that view are more acceptable when reserved to grace a
conclusion, than when employed to enforce an argument; yet we
think that, now, comparatively few persons would think the
discussion of any subject bearing on the physical nature of Man,
complete, which omitted the very intimate and demonstrable
relations which exist between the moral and the physiological laws.
The point, however, which we wish to impress, is, that Mr.
Abernethy, in pleading the moral bearings of Hunter's views by
deductions of his own, was simply following that course which he
had been in the habit of doing on most other questions; it was
merely part of that plan on which, without the smallest approach at
any attempt to intrude religious considerations inappropriately into
the discussion of matters ordinarily regarded as secular, he had
always inculcated a straightforward, free-from-cant, do-as-you-
would-be-done-by tone in his own Lectures. This, while it formed
one of their brightest ornaments, was just that without which all
lectures must be held as defective, which are addressed to young
men about to enter an arduous and responsible profession.
Abernethy stated nothing as facts but which were demonstrably
such; and with regard to any hypotheses which he employed in aid
of explaining them, he observed those conditions which philosophers
agree on as necessary, whether the hypotheses be adopted or
otherwise. He did not do even this, but for the very legitimate object
of explaining the views of the man on whose labours he was
discoursing.
When those views of Mr. Hunter, which had been thus set forth
and illustrated, were attacked, he defended them with his
characteristic ability; and although we will not undertake to say that
the defence contains no single passage that might not as well have
been omitted, we are not aware that, from the beginning to the end,
it is charged with a single paragraph that does not fall fairly within
the limits that the most stringent would prescribe to scientific
controversy.
The discussion of abstract principles is generally unprofitable.
We think few things more clear than that we know not the intrinsic
nature of any abstract principle; and although it would be
presumptuous to say we never shall, yet we think it impossible for
any reflecting student in any science to avoid perceiving that there
are peculiar relations between the laws of nature and the human
capacity, which most emphatically suggest that the study of the one
is the proper business, and the prescribed limit to the power, of the
other.
Still, the poverty of language is such, as regards the expression
of natural phenomena, that necessity has obliged us to clothe the
forces in nature with some attribute sufficiently in conformity with
our ideas to enable us to give them an intelligible expression; and,
whether we talk of luminous particles, ethereal undulations, electric
or magnetic fluids, matter of heat, &c. we apprehend that no one
now means more than to convey an intellectually tangible
expression, of certain forces in nature, of which he desires to
discourse; in order to describe the habitudes they observe, or the
laws which they obey. This is all we think it necessary to say on the
scientific conduct of the argument by Abernethy.
The public have long since expressed their opinion on Mr.
Lawrence's Reply and Lectures; and whatever may be regarded as
their decision, we have no disposition to canvass or disturb it. There
was nothing wonderful, however unusual, in a young man so placed,
in a profession like ours, getting into a controversy with a man of
such eminence as Abernethy, particularly on speculative subjects.
There were in the present case, to be sure, very many objections to
such a position; but these it was Mr. Lawrence's province to consider.
On this, and many other points, we have as little inclination as we
have right, perhaps, to state our opinion. Nevertheless, we must not
omit a few words in recognition of Mr. Abernethy's efforts, and a few
observations on the conduct of the governing body of the College at
that time. In the first place, we feel obliged to Mr. Abernethy for the
defence he made on that occasion: not from the importance of any
abstract theory, but from the tendency that his whole tone had to
inculcate just views of the nature and character of the profession.
But we can by no means acquit the Council of the College, at the
time of the said controversy, of what we must conceive to have been