CURRENT LITERATURE.
PHYSICIAN AND FRIEND.
Physician, and Friend. Edited by George Smith, C.I.E., LL.D (John Murray. 108. 6d. net.)—Dr. Smith's considerable • ability as a biographer is in this book a little thrown away. His material is too slight. Dr. Alexander Grant was for seven years, as household surgeon to Lord Dalhousie. a person of some importance in India, and he made, as he deserved, many friends ; but his life was uneventful, and the effect of his fine character upon his great patient will not be revealed until Lord Dalhousie's papers are published ten years 'hence. His characterisation of Lord Dalhousie is interesting. as showing that the Viceroy seemed to a shrewd and kindly Scot who lived with him in unusual intimacy for seven years a very great man indeed, at least the equal of Wellesley ; but his eulogy adds little to the world's knowledge of its subject. The public did not suspect, we think, that Lord Dalhousie was in private life a humorous man, or that throughout his term- of office he ;was more or less a sickly one, who suffered dangerously from his periods of overwork ; but that is all that is new about the central figure of the booic. Dr. Grant was probably a keen observer am .well as a man of infinite tact and much good feeling, but his Diary i; only interesting from the sort of prefaces with which Dr. Smith has introduced each division. The short account of the progress of Burmah as a province is, for instance, worth much more than anything Dr. Grant found to say about it. The truth is, the man was merged in a master far greater than himself, and it is not till we see the master's life as it will be revealed ten years hence from his carefully sealed papers that we shall be able to estimate at all accurately what his value was either as physician or as friend. It suffices that in both characters Lord Dalhousie estimated him most highly.
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