JOHN BARNARD SWETT JACKSON. 349 



No man has ever died among us who has been more universally loved 

 and respected, or whose loss has been more felt than his will be by the 

 members of the profession to which he belonged. He was less widely 

 known to the community at large than many others, but it would be 

 safe to say that no one ever heard his name mentioned but in tones of 

 kindly regard, or his character referred to except as that of a man 

 without guile, true as truth, pure as purity, honest as Nature herself, 

 whose works he studied. It may sound like extravagant language to 

 claim so much for him, but he was quite exceptional in the singular 

 childlike simplicity and transparency of his character, and in using the 

 expressions here applied to him it is only among those who did not 

 know him that such words need fear questioning comment. 



It was not in medical practice that Dr. Jackson was chiefly known 

 among us. He was not in all respects fitted for the every-day work 

 which belongs to that laborious calling. He was perhaps too sensi- 

 tive, and, if such a word may be ventured, too scrupulous, to work 

 quietly and easily to himself, which is one great condition of success. 

 A great physician must have something of the great general about 

 him, and more than one great general has left it on record that he 

 could get a good nap on the battle-field in the interval of its decisive 

 moments. The singular delicacy of Dr. Jackson's nature stood in the 

 way of his success in the rough out-door world where men are neces- 

 sarily jostled together in competition. With his vast knowledge of 

 disease, it might have seemed that he would be wanted everywhere in 

 consultation. Perhaps he knew too much, — knew the tricks of Nature 

 which baffle the most skilful diagnosticians too well to speak with that 

 positiveness which is often decisive, in virtue of its personal emphasis, 

 in cases where doubts are plenty and convictions feeble ; where in the 

 words of the great old master, " The momeut is pressing, experiment 

 dangerous, judgment difficult." 



Nor was it in the routine of medical practice that Dr. Jackson won 

 that great reputation which reaches all over the land, and beyond it, 

 wherever pathological science is cultivated. He studied disease in its 

 effects upon the organs. There was a long series of years during 

 which the ruined or injured vital machinery of our fellow-citizens, the 

 cause of whose death was asked by those interested, was almost certain 

 to pass under his thorough and careful inspection. The results he 

 found in each case he minutely recorded. The history of the disease 

 he took the greatest pains to learn. What Morgagni did for Valsalva 

 he did for the whole medical profession of our city. In this way, he 

 accumulated a great mass of original materials, fresh transcripts from 



