Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/234

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

214 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. relation of the author) and Dr. J. C. Gregory have added, in the form of an appendix, such notes and ilhistrations as may afford to students an idea of the additions made to the science of medicine since the period of the original publication. Intimately connected with the memory of Cullen is the history of the system of Brown, which acquired a more rapid popularity than any which has been yet propounded, and which, in some parts of Europe, is scarcely yet extinct. This unfortu- nate man of genius was originally a teacher of Latin at Edinburgh, and a translator of theses into that language. About the middle of life he obtained permission to attend the medical classes gratuitously, and thus commenced the study of the profession with a mind previously tinged with the technical language of the science. He in- structed the children of Cullen in Latin, and an intimacy arose between them. Brown attached himself warmly to Cullen and to his doctrines ; he even looked forward to the prospect of obtaining a future maintenance in London by repeating Cullen's lectures after his death. Some disagree- ment occurred ; Brown was a man of impetuous character, and of imprudent habits, and he imme- diately became the virulent antagonist of his patron. If Cullen had never taught, the system of Brown would have never been moulded, — and Cullen was wounded by some of the arrows which he had himself pointed. Brown appears to have had no acquaintance with the bedside of the sick, and his medical erudition was very limited. He commenced a course of opposition lectures, which