Sir George Humphry. 129 



of his thought as in the results expounded. Moreover, a facility 

 of expression, of epigrammatic point, and of pertinent illustration, 

 gave a vividness to his lectures which none of his pupils forget. Of 

 no clinical teacher, perhaps, are so many " sayings " still quoted. In 

 presence he was no less remarkable; it is hard now to imagine the 

 streets of Cambridge without a vision of that keen face and slender 

 frame, worn, as it were, by incessant activity of mind and body. In 

 private life his influence was no less attractive ; closely occupied as 

 he was by his profession, he retained, nevertheless, to the end of his 

 life, a curiosity and openness of mind towards all and any subjects of 

 scientific or literary interest, which made him a stimulating and 

 interesting companion. The subtlety of his mind indeed, and a 

 certain defect in judgment of individual character which is common 

 in men of his masterful and eager nature, laid him open sometimes, 

 especially in his earlier days, to strong and even bitter opposition. 

 With Paget and Michael Foster, Humphry had a leading part to 

 play in the resurrection, or indeed the creation, of the Medical 

 Faculty as a great department in Cambridge ; to this end his master- 

 fulness of character was essential, and, if at times his subtlety and 

 pertinacity were resented, his courtesy and vivacity of manners, his 

 humour and persuasiveness as a public speaker, the purity of his 

 motives, the loftiness of his purpose, and his attractive personal 

 qualities, at any rate in his later years, disarmed all opposition and 

 animosity. Of his contributions to medicine, reference may be 

 made to his book on " Old Age," published in 1889 ; and to the article 

 on ' Tetanus ' in Allbutt's " System of Medicine," written shortly 

 before his death. 



It is, however, upon his contributions to Anatomical Science, 

 which were numerous and valuable, that Humphry's scientific 

 reputation chiefly depends. His first and largest work, "The 

 Human Skeleton," published in 1858, was a record of original 

 observation and research ; indeed in its day it was the most remark- 

 able book on the subject, and on almost every page it shows the 

 care and pains that had been expended in its production. He was 

 one of the first to observe that the cancelli in each bone show 

 a definite arrangement of their lamellae, and to point out the 

 practical importance of this in the mechanics of the skeleton. His 

 tables showing the relative lengths of the long bones in different 

 races, embodying much laborious work done by himself, were the 

 earliest researches in this branch of physical anthropology. 



In the department of Muscular Anatomy he published an important 

 series of descriptive papers, the records of his dissections of animals ; 

 and from this ontological material deduced certain general principles 

 in muscle-morphology. His results are interesting; as in some 



