1823.] 
able as any possibly could be,*—he 
employed all the energies of his com- 
prehensive and well-stored mind, not 
merely in fullowing tamely in. the 
path of those who had gone before 
him; but in effecting new discoverics, 
and in marking out improvementsin a 
sysiem which had already been consi- 
derably enlightened. by the labours. of 
a Hunter and a Home... Mr. Brodic, 
too} is: a» physiologist, and oue of no 
meanirank and‘ability; and, to habits 
of deep study and reilection, he unites 
a rapidity of perception, wlich enables 
him to seize, as it were intuitively, the 
leading facts of the, most intricate 
case. This, to a superficial observer, 
would appear merely the effect of a 
sudden and momentary impulse ; but 
it is undoubtedly the result of much 
deep and solitary study. Thus much 
for his general character: I will now 
proceed to particulars. First, then, 
of his hospital-practice: I do not hesi- 
tate to, say, that there is no surgeon in 
London whose manner at the hospital 
is more worthy of imitation. He does. 
not rest satisfied with. merely ‘‘ going 
round’, from bed to bed, looking at 
his patients, and then ordering the 
medicine in his book, as the custom is, 
—without comnmnicating. to any of 
his, pupils. what be has done. No: 
Mr. Brodie does not do..so,, He in- 
forms his: pupils, not only what medi- 
cine is orderéd, but why it is exhi- 
bited, and what. are the expected 
effeets.. If there, be any. intricate or 
unusual, ease, he, explains candidly 
what are bis opinions, his reasons for 
them, and so forth; and this, too, with 
so much kindness and attentive con- 
descension, that no one can doubt the 
Sincerity of his interest for his pupils’ 
welfare... There is, besides, an affabi- 
lity in his manner that is wonderfully 
pleasing and. attractive, and there is 
not one of his pupils (Owen tells me,) 
who is not proud of his professor. I 
myself have witnessed one circum- 
stance, which must always redound to 
his credit: 
kindness to the poor. patients in the 
hospital. . Nothing can be more consi- 
derate, more fecling,or more attentive, 
than his behaviour to them; and sure 
1 am, that. much of the pain and terror 
* Mr. Bradie was house-surgeon at St. 
George’s, and became afterwards. Sir 
Everard Home’s assistant-snrgeon. Upon 
the death of the Jate senior surgeon, Mr. 
Griffitlis, his election as janior surgeon 
was a matter of course. 
Montuty Mac. No. 389. 
Letters on the Medical School of London. 
I .allude to his extreme. 
409 
of disease has heen often alleviated 
by conduct such as this. As a lec- 
turer, .Mr. Brodie is. excellent, al- 
though there isa constraint in his 
delivery which ;sounds. at first .ex- 
tremely awkward ; but this soon wears 
off, and is at length entirely lost inthe 
mass of instructive facts which he ° 
pours forth before his auditors. His 
style is particularly simple and unaf- 
fected;—his lecture being literally, ‘a 
plain unvarnished tale,” full, however, 
of excellent instruction and impres- 
sive information; and his must be, in= 
deed, a dull capacity, who does not 
carry away, something useful. from 
every individual lecture that he heats. 
Your’s, as usual, 
Charterhouse-square; HA. OAKLEY. 
Jan. 20, 1823. 
—=_— 
To the Editor of the Monthly, Magazine. 
SIR, Louk 
T is generally imagined that cloth 
is the colour it appears to be: this 
is not the case, for the fibres of linen 
or woollen are hollow like straw, and 
the art of dyeing them consists (after 
cleansing the tubes,) of diyiding the 
colouring matter into as minute parti- 
cles as possible without destroying it 
as colour, and then introducing it into 
these tubes or pores. ‘The colour of 
the linen or woollen always remains 
the same, Some colouring matter will 
not of itself stay in either, without a 
mordant being first. introduced, which 
eagerly attaghes itself to the fibre, as 
well as possesses a chemical affinity to 
the colouring atoms. 
There is not any body for dye natu- 
rally black ; but there is a property in 
galls, sumach, oak, &c. poss@ssing a 
sort of mordant, to which iron so 
attaches itself as to give the most per- 
manent black dye, particularly with a 
little logwood. In writing, however, 
the pores of the linen or paper are not 
sufliciently opened for mach colour to 
enter them ; therefore gum is used. If 
animal gluten is substituted, I feel no 
doubt that it will decay infinitely 
sooner than gum, more especially if 
exposed to the least damp. 
S.S. 
Battersea Rise ; Aug. 19. 
= 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
A NEW PLAN of TUNNELLING, caleulated 
for OPENING & ROADWAY. wider the 
THAMES. PRIVATELY CIRCULATED by 
M. J. BRUNEL,; ESQ, F:R.S.. wh e's 
O discover convenient and effica- 
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3G between 
cious 
