Ixx Anmial Report of the Council. 



Browne was not deficient in the sense of humour ; with a 

 youthful and congenial patient — and he had a smile in the 

 eyes as well as round the mouth, which induced confidence 

 in the youthful — he could even perpetrate a pun at the 

 bedside. His literary recreation as a busy medical man, and 

 in the closing years of his life, was the study of Biblical 

 literature. He once told the present writer that he would have 

 been glad to give his life to the e.xamination of the Greek 

 and Hebrew texts ; and after his retirement from the practice 

 of his profession he appears to have taken up this study with 

 increased zest. In 1881 he published a substantial volume, 

 the nature of which is sufficiently indicated by the title, "John's 

 Apocalypse : Literally Translated and Spiritually Interpreted ; " 

 and the year of his death saw the appearance of what has been 

 described as the work of his life, a large octavo volume of 

 upwards of 500 pages, entitled the " Triglot Dictionary of 

 Scriptural Representative Words in Hebrew, Greek, and 

 English." There will doubtless be many persons, philologists 

 as well as commentators, who will consider Dr. Browne's 

 opinions on these matters extreme ; there may even be only a 

 few theologians who will be able to carry their faith as far as he 

 carried his. But a noteworthy fact is that even in these, perhaps 

 too mystical, inquiries, the characteristic scientific qualities of 

 his mind were displayed as in his medical practice. He insists 

 on the value of facts and experiences in preference to literary 

 elaboration. In such interpretation, he maintains, " there is no 

 place for human imagination or fanciful poetical figure." How- 

 ever uncouth a literal translation may be, it will at least be most 

 free from any admixture of " man's mistakes." He claims that 

 in the " Triglot Dictionary " every English word is now 

 "exclusively associated with one Greek word and with one 

 Hebrew word, which Greek and Hebrew words not only fairly 

 represent each other, but often throw fresh light upon each 

 other " ; whereas, even in the Revised Version of the Scriptures, 

 as many as fifty or sixty English equivalents have been 

 given for one word or phrase in the original text. What is 



