April 12, 1894] 



NA TURE 



557 



His first of many visits to the United States was made 

 about I S5o,and his workon ' 'Experimental Researches ap- 

 plied to Physiology and Pathology "was published in New 

 York in 1853. In January 1858 the first part appeared of 

 tht Journal de la Physiologic de V Homme et des A nimaux. 

 It was dedicated to Biot, Rayer, Flourens, and James 

 Paget, as a "hommage de reconnaissance et de respec- 

 tueuse affection." His experimental researches had 

 already proved of immense impor'ance in their bearings 

 on various pathological conditions, and the results of 

 experiment had not only aided in the diagnosis of disease, 

 but had also furnished means and hints whereby suffer- 

 ing humanity could be relieved, so that it was not very 

 surprising that when, in i860, the Hospital for the 

 Paralysed and Epileptic was opened in London, Brown- 

 Sequard was selected to be its physician. Arduous as 

 were his new duties, they had a special attraction for 

 him. His labours, however, did not end with his hos- 

 pital work ; a large private practice demanded a great 

 expenditure of his own nerve force, and after a couple of 

 years he talked of it as being overwhelming. A visit 

 paid to him at this time was a contrast to the one at 

 Paris. The large reception-room in his house in Caven- 

 dish-square was filled with anxious patients and their 

 friends. A hasty interview on the staircase was all that 

 he could afford ; it ended with a " come and have a talk 

 over old times, but come at night for fear of the patients." 

 To those who knew him well it was therefore no surprise 

 that in 1864 he should give up his hospital appointment, 

 his patients, and his house in London, and go to the 

 Plarvard University, as Professor of Physiology and 

 Pathology of the Nervous System. The rest at Cam- 

 bridge did him good, and he recommenced original work ; 

 but shortly afterwards his wife died, and in a fit of 

 poignant grief he gave up his appoinment and returned 

 once more, with his son, to Europe (February 1885), pass- 

 ing through Dublin on his way to Paris. 



In 1868 he founded, in conjunction with Charcot and 

 \\i\Y\?iW,\.\\Q Archives de Physiologie. Early in 1869 he 

 was nominated " Professeur agrege a la Faculte de 

 Medecine de Paris." In this year he was elected an 

 honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy. About 

 1870 he again returned to the L^nited States, staying for 

 some time in New York ; but he came back to Paris in 

 1878, and succeeded Claude Bernard in the chair of Ex- 

 perimental Medicine at the College of France. He was 

 awarded the Baly medal by the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians of London in 1881, and was elected to \^ulpian's 

 place in the French Academy in 1886. He was a F.R.S. 

 as well as a member of many continental and American 

 Societies. 



His experimental researches, undertaken in his later 

 days— between 1889 and 1893 — to sustain or even to 

 renew the vital powers, it is not necessary for us to 

 particularly mention : dreams allowed to a poet are 

 forbidden to the philosopher, and time will alone tell 

 whether there be any germ of reason in Brovvn-Sequard's 

 investigations ; if not, they may be forgotten and for- 

 given. Wishing peace to his memory, we will not soon 

 forget the gentleness of his disposition or his affection 

 as a friend. He died at Paris on Sunday, April i. 



PROFESSOR ROBERTSON SMITH. 



THE death of Prof Robertson Smith, on March 31, 

 at a comparatively early age, is a profound loss to 

 the whole thinking world. 



Unfortunately for Science, and (in too many respects) 

 for himself, his splendid intellectual power was diverted, 

 early in his career, from Physics and Mathematics, in which 

 he had given sure earnest of success. He turned his 

 attention to eastern languages, and acquired a knowledge 



NO. I 276, VOT.. 49] 



of Hebrew, Arabic, and other tongues, quite exceptional 

 in the case of a Briton. 



Dr Smith was born at Keig, Aberdeenshire, in 1846, 

 and educated at Aberdeen University, the New College, 

 Edinburgh, and the Universities of Bonn and Gottingen. 

 In 1868 he became Assistant to the Professor of Physics 

 in Edinburgh University ; in 1870, at the age of 

 twenty-four, he was appointed to the chair of Hebrew in 

 the Free Church College of Aberdeen. A few years later 

 he fell under the suspicion of holding heterodox views 

 concerning Biblical history. Orthodoxy raised her voice 

 against him in the newspapers, in the chuiches, in the 

 Presbyteries, and finally, in the General Assembly of the 

 Free Church of Scotland, and the clamour culminated in 

 his dismissal from the Professorship at Aberdeen in 18S1. 

 This was effected, not by a direct condemnation of his 

 published opinions, but by a monstrous (temporary) 

 alliance between ignorant fanaticism and cultivated 

 Jesuitry, which deplored the "unsettling tendency" of 

 his articles ! 



He next became successor to Prof. Baynes in the 

 Editorship of the last edition of the E7icyclopcedia 

 Britannica; and here his business qualities, as well 

 as his extraordinary range of learning, came pro- 

 minently before the world. In 1883 Dr. Smith 

 was appointed Reader in Arabic at Cambridge, and 

 three years later he succeeded the late Mr. Bradshaw 

 as librarian to the University. He was afterwards 

 elected to a Fellowship at Christ's College, and to the 

 Professorship of Arabic. 



What Smith might have doiie in science is shown by 

 his masterly paper " On the Flow of Electricity in Con- 

 ductifig Surfaces" {Proc. R.S.E., 1870), which was rapidly 

 written in the brief intervals of leisure afforded by his 

 dual life as simultaneously a Student in the Free Church 

 College, and Assistant to the Professor of Natural Philo- 

 sophy in Edinburgh LTniversity. 



We understand that his engagement as Assistant to 

 Prof. Tait had its origin in the extremely remarkable 

 appearance made by young Smith as a Candidate in the 

 Examination for the Ferguson Scholarships, an examina- 

 tion in which most of the very best men in the four 

 Scottish Universities are annually pitted against one 

 another. 



In Edinburgh University he did splendid service in 

 the work of initiating the Physical Laboratory :--and 

 there can be no doubt that the esprit de corps, and the 

 genuine enthusiasm for scientific investigation, which he 

 was so influential in exciting there, have inaugurated and 

 promoted many a successful career (not in this country 

 alone, but in far regions everywhere), and that, near and 

 far, his death will be heard of with heart-felt sorrow. 



A light and playful feature of his too few years of 

 scientific work consisted in his exposures of the hollow- 

 ness of the pretentions of certain "philosophers": 

 when they ventured to tread on scientific ground. Several 

 of these will be found in the Proceedings and Tran- 

 sactions oi the Roya.] Society of Edinburgh (1869-71). 

 Smith treats his antagonist "tenderly, as if he loved, 

 him," but the exposure is none the less complete. 



A writer in the Times thus testifies to Dr. Smith's re- 

 markable powers : " In him there has passed away a 

 man who possessed not only one of the most learned but 

 also one of the most brilliant and sinking minds in either 

 of the great English Universities, and who was held in 

 the highest regard by the leading orientalists of the con- 

 tinent. His extraordinary range of knowledge, the 

 swiftness and acuteness of h's intellect, and his pas- 

 sionate love of truth combined to make an almost unique 

 personality. His talents for mathematics and physical 

 science were scarcely less remarkable than those for 

 linguistic studies, and if he had not preferred the latter, 

 there is no question that he could have reached great 

 eminence in the former." 



