MEMOIRS OF SIR ROBERT CHRISTISON!

SOME time ago, there was noticed in the columns of the Spectator the very interesting, though incomplete, auto- biography of Sir Robert Christison, the eminent Scotch physician and medical Professor, on whom, although a sturdy political opponent, Mr. Gladstone induced the Queen to confer the rare honour of a baronetcy. His sons have supplemented this work by an equally large volume of memoirs, which is, fortunately, of such a character that it can be read with pleasure and profit by laymen as well as by experts. They have wisely allowed their father himself to tell as much of his story as possible by extracts from his letters ; not less wisely have they entrusted to competent hands the task of summing-up his professional and scientific work in special chapters, which the ordinary reader may skip if he chooses, although he will not find them particularly hard reading. The impression that remains after reading these two volumes is very well expressed by the phrase in which Christison's most intimate friend, John Brown, described him—Ultimus Romanorum. He seems to have been the impersonation of pluck, and perhaps he was not far wrong in attributing it to the Scandinavian blood in his veins. He was an indefatigable pedestrian and mountain-climber almost to his death, at the great age of eighty-five. He could drive off fever by forced exercise, much as the eccentric Earl of Peter- borough drove it off in Spain by a hard gallop :—

" In 1873, when seventy-six years of age, be climbed Ben Donioh (2,749 feet), at the head of Locbgoil, beginning at the level of the sea, in two hours and fifty-four minutes. In descending, be fell head- over.heels down a steep slope, but escaped without serious injury. In 1875, when in his seventy-ninth year, he twice ascended Ben Voir- lich, a climb of 2,900 feet from the starting-point at Loohearn, with- out feeling much fatigued on the succeeding days. On one of these occasions, he accomplished the ascent in two hours and forty minutes. In the spring of 1877 he had a severe illness, which nearly proved fatal, and resulted in a tedious swelling of the whole of one limb. After this, there was a marked falling-off in his pedestrian powers ; yet in 1879 be was able to ascend Ben Vrackie, near Pitlochrie, a climb of 1,700 feet from the road, with a preliminary mile of very rough moor to cross ; and this at the age of eighty-two! And even in his eighty-fourth year he climbed an eminence 1,200 feet in height, behind the hones which he occupied in autumn at Ballachulish."

Three weeks before his death, he corrected the proof of an article on " Tree Measurements " for the Highland and Agri- cultural Society. So long as he could hold a pen, he made a note of the temperatnre and state of the weather every morning. His final remark upon himself, uttered to Sir Alexander Grant when the latter was bidding him farewell, was, "My life for four years has been a struggle, but not altogether a disagreeable struggle, against many evils; now I can struggle no more."

Sir Robert Christison was and is a leading authority on Materia Modica generally. He made his first reputation by his writings on poisons ; and he is still regarded as one of the first of toxi- cologists. An experiment with one poison, the Calabar bean, which, with characteristic courage, he made upon himself, very nearly proved fatal. Having taken one-eighth part of a seed without observing any effect, he next tried twice the quantity :-

" Giddiness occurred in fifteen minutes ; it soon increased, and became associated with a peculiar and indescribable torpidity. Being satisfied that he had taken a dangerous dose of an energetic poison, he swallowed, with characteristic readiness of resource, the shaving- water he bad just been using, and thus effectually emptied the stomach. Enough had, however, been already absorbed iuto the blood to produce alarming symptoms, such as great disorder and weakness of the circulation, extreme muscular prostration, and diffi-

The Life of Sir Robert Christie's. Bart. Edited by his Sons. Vol. IL, Memoirs. Edinburgh and London : William Blackwood and Sons. 1836.

calty of articulation, from which recovery did not take place for several hours."

A. leas risky experiment was that which he made, in his seventy- eighth year, in the way of chewing the Peruvian cam or coca leaves. He took long walks, and finally ascended Ben Voirlich,.

where he experimented with the leaves. In his journal, he writes thus of what took place on Ban Voirlich :-

" I reached the top very tired. Determination alone carried me up the last six hundred feet. As soon as I arrived, I began to chew cane leaves, and consumed ninety grains during the half-hour spent on the summit and the first half-hour of the descent. When I started for the descent, the sense of fatigue was entirely gone. I went straight down without a stop in one hour and a quarter to the road, not much tired—able to walk comfortably a mile and a half to meet the carriage. Although my limbs felt rather heavy to move, I seemed not to care for this."

In a more formal report on the same subject, he says :— " The chewing of mica removes extreme fatigue and prevents it. Hunger and thirst are suspended ; but eventually appetite and

digestion are unaffected It has no effect upon the mental faculties, so far as my own trials and other observations go, except liberating them from the dullness and drowsiness which follow great bodily fatigue."

Surely this Peruvian leaf ought to be better known than it is. Sir Robert Christison took a keen interest in the life and work of the Scotch Universities, particularly of Edinburgh, in which he was a Professor. He was spoken of for the Principal- ship on the death of Sir David Brewster. Near the close of his life, he was brought forward for the Lord Rectorship in the Conservative interest, but was beaten by Lord Rosebery. For a long time, he discharged the duties of Secretary to the Univer- sity Court,—a post for which, among other things, his truly exquisite penmanship must have qualified him. He was the life and soul of the opposition in Edinburgh to the " female medical " movement, or, as he would probably have preferred to say, to the particular form taken by that movement. A reserved, somewhat dignified man—sometimes his reserve was misinter- preted as hauteur—he yet had a vein of drollery in him, and considerable capacity for social enjoyment. He had a good voice for singing, and actually " performed " in public. When well up in life, he threw himself heartily into the Volunteer movement.

We cannot close this notice of a very readable book without

giving the following pleasant reference to Carlyle, when he was in Edinburgh in 1866 :— " I saw a good deal of Thomas Carlyle here last week, and found him a simple-hearted, straightforward man, with all the ingenious felicity and humour in conversation which one would anticipate from his writings ; but I was sorry to observe that his physical powers are not retained on a level with those of his mind. lie evidently enjoyed our Senates symposium, at which the new-made LL.D.'s were pre-

sent Sir William Stirling Maxwell, as Rector of St. Andrews, was also a guest, and seemed not less delighted than Carlyle. Clearly, they find a congress of Edinburgh professors something very different from a conventicle ; and from various quarters I hear of their surprise and pleasure."

It will be observed that Sir Robert Christison's remarks bear

out what Professor Masson has recently written—by way of correcting Mr. Froude—of Carlyle's demeanour on the occasion of his memorable and tragic visit to Edinburgh as Lord Rector of the University.