XI 



cast, cautious and modest in treatment. While not inferior in 

 accurate physical diagnosis to those who made this the whole of 

 their art, he would never follow the routine system of diagnosis 

 by successive exclusions, which, however useful to a junior student, 

 is of very limited application at the bedside. In really obscure cases, 

 where definite physical signs failed to indicate the nature, or even the 

 existence of the disease, few physicians have approached the almost 

 intuitive sagacity of Sir William Gull. 



He was often supposed to be entirely sceptical as to treatment ; and 

 this scandal, though unjust, was no doubt fostered by some too sweep- 

 ing words of contempt for polypharmacy and unverified therapeutical 

 dogmas. In reality, his treatment was extremely careful, scrupu- 

 lous, and minute, judicious in its aim, ingenious in its devices, and 

 occupied with those little matters of detail which make so much 

 difference to the comfort of the patient, and the success of any plan 

 of therapeutic. His use of drugs was scarcely more sparing than the 

 practice of other scientific physicians. In suitable cases no one 

 wielded such powerful weapons as opium, mercury, arsenic, and digi- 

 talis with more confidence and skill. He used iron and quinine and 

 acids, and bitters and purgatives much as others use them, but 

 with a full recognition of the limited power of drugs, the natural 

 limitations of acute disease, and the inevitable progress of degenera- 

 tion and decay. 



His eminence as a clinical teacher, a lecturer, and a practitioner 

 was so conspicuous, that his merits as a pathologist and observer have 

 scarcely received the credit they deserve. It is not too much to say, 

 that he takes rank among the five or six Englishmen of his generation 

 who advanced medical knowledge at more than one important point. 

 He never published a book, and his papers are scattered in the volumes 

 of the 'Guy's Hospital Reports' and in the Transactions of Societies. 

 In one of the earliest papers which he published (in conjunction 

 with Dr. Addison) was given almost the first notice and the first 

 complete description of the remarkable disease of the skin known as 

 Xanthelasma. His papers en Intermittent Heematuria, on the Treat- 

 ment of Rheumatic Fever, on the Treatment of Teenia, and on Fictitious 

 Urticaria were all accurate and original contributions to clinical 

 knowledge. But his articles on Paraplegia in the ' Guy's Reports,' 

 and on Abscess of the Brain in ' Reynolds' System of Medicine,' 

 established pathological facts of primary importance. The paper 

 which he published, in conjunction with Dr. Sutton, upon " Arterio- 

 capillary Fibrosis" deals with a subject of great difficulty which is 

 still, and probably will long remain, under investigation. It un- 

 doubtedly gave a new point of view and a most instructive one to 

 the student of chronic Bright's disease. His account of Anorexia 

 Nervosa was also marked by keenness of discrimination and breadth 



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