554 



Irritation, we have little more to say in the brief space assigned to us, 

 than that it is truly " the work of a master." It consists of two 

 parts : the first contains an account of the direct effects of local irri- 

 tation upon the great centres of life ; the heart, the brain, and nervous 

 system. The second is a more elaborate production: it embraces a re- 

 view of all those obscure relations between parts and centres respect- 

 ively, which the author terms " reflected," wherein the latter are not 

 abruptly roused to a direct response and sympathy with the local 

 excitement, but where the action passes on, via the system, to some 

 other tissue or organ of the body, or is remitted back from the 

 centres directly to the offending part, as shown by the specific form 

 or type of the local changes. This is the most profound portion of 

 the whole work ; the author was always diffident of the success of 

 this second part of the inquiry ; he felt he should not be under- 

 stood, and yet, to use his own majestic phrase, " he sought to rise to 

 the dignity of a discourse upon the philosophy of Surgery." 



Mr. Travers contributed largely to the best periodical literature of 

 his time. These productions are for the most part to be found in the 

 earlier volumes of the " Medico-Chirurgical Transactions," normustwe 

 omit to mention that his first paper narrates the success of an opera- 

 tion performed for the cure of a remarkable aneurismal tumor. On 

 this occasion Mr. T. tried the common carotid artery. The woman 

 perfectly recovered. At that time this operation had only once 

 before been performed successfully by Sir Astley Cooper. The two 

 papers on Malignant Disease, and a small theoretical discourse on 

 Syphilis, must not pass without praiseworthy mention, to say nothing 

 of his last work on Inflammation, a crowning effort, worthy of this 

 great disciple of Hunter. 



Mr. Travers in early life was a very good operator. He was still 

 young when he first held the Surgeoncy to the Eye-Infirmary. He used 

 to say that a man who can extract the cataract with tolerable success 

 can do anything with the knife. Add to this, that from a very early 

 period he was in the daily habit of cutting down upon arteries, and 

 performing other hazardous experiments upon living animals, which 

 must also have contributed to give him readiness and dexterity as an 

 operating Surgeon. 



He lived to achieve all the honours of the race set before him. 

 He was twice President of the College of Surgeons, and had long 



