April 20, 1899] 



NA TURE 



591 



names of Redfern, Carter, and Dobie, who have each 

 made their mark in this branch of science. It was not, 

 however, until the early sixties that practical physiology, 

 as now understood, was developed in the Edinburgh 

 school. Bennett's great contemporary, John Goodsir, the 

 anatomist, brought under his notice the new experimental 

 school of Germany, and in a short time the ingenious 

 instruments of Helmholtz, Du Bois-Reymond, and 

 Ludwig made their appearance in Edinburgh, probably 

 before they were known in any other school in Great 

 Britain. The first assistant who dealt with such matters, 

 and who added a short course of instruction in physio- 

 logical chemistry, was Dr. Argyll Robertson, the eminent 

 ophthahnologist. After him came Rutherford, who threw 

 himself into the work with characteristic ardour, and who 

 amplified the course from year to year. In 1869, he 

 became Professor of Physiology in King's College, 

 London ; in 1871, Professor of Physiology in the Royal 

 Institution of Great Britain ; and, in 1874, he returned 

 to Edinburgh to occupy the chair of his old master. 

 For twenty-five years he laboured unremittingly as a 

 teacher, and he was able, as few men could have done, 

 to cope with the enormous classes which for several 

 years characterised the Edinburgh school. During the 

 winter session, the systematic class frequently numbered 

 five hundred students, while about two hundred and fifty 

 obtained instruction in practical physiology, partly in the 

 winter but mostly in the summer session. 



It has always been the tradition that the occupant of a 

 Scottish chair is expected to do two things : he must, in 

 the first place, be a successful teacher, and, in the next, 

 he must contribute to scientific progress ; and it may be 

 at once said that many eminent men have not found the 

 two classes of duties to be incompatible. Rutherford is 

 a typical example of such a successful combination, 

 although, no doubt, he will be best remembered as a 

 teacher. In this department of his work he was indeed 

 a master. No one understood better the arts of clear 

 exposition and of successful demonstration. It may be 

 said his lectures were demonstrations from beginning to 

 end. He devised ingenious methods by which funda- 

 mental phenomena might be successfully shown to large 

 numbers of students, and his lectures were always 

 copiously illustrated by diagrams. He did not trust 

 much to text-books, nor to students finding out for them- 

 selves by laboratory work. He Ijelieved that the average 

 student requires to be guided ; that he must have the 

 subject placed before him in such a way that he can 

 grasp its leading principles ; and that, without careful 

 supervision and almost elementary drill, he will probably 

 lose time in bungling laboratory work. Rutherford, 

 therefore, took immense pains in leading the student on 

 step by step, both in systematic teaching and in the 

 laboratory. It is probable that from the highest point of 

 view he erred in his method, or, rather, carried it too 

 far, but he was eminently successful in training the 

 average man. 



Recognising that physiology is a composite science, a 

 science that rests on the triple foundation of anatomy, 

 physics, and chemistry, his own predilections were 

 towards the first. He was thoroughly conversant with 

 histology, as a branch of anatomy, and in his lectures 

 perhaps undue prominence was given to this subject. 

 He spent more time than was necessary in minute mor- 

 phological details, with the physiological significance of 

 which he was unacquainted ; but he held that physiology 

 must begin with an intimate knowledge of the structure of 

 the cell and of the fibre. In this he was right. Histology, 

 for ordinary students, must be taught from the physio- 

 logical standpoint, but it is high time that the physiologist 

 was relieved from teaching the technique of the subject. 

 Rutherford's earlier training prevented him from grasping 

 with equal firmness the applications of chemistry and 

 physics to physiological problems. Here he was not so 



NO. 1538, VOL. 59] 



much at home. It only remains to be said that, taking 

 him all round, he was one of the most successful teachers 

 that ever adorned the northern school. 



As an original investigator, Rutherford accomplished 

 not a little, although it must be admitted that the time 

 he devoted to teaching was often at the expense of that 

 which might have been given to original work. It is 

 also too true that when we sum up a man's work, as a 

 rule it seems insignificant. Even the most skilled and 

 diligent labourers lay only a few stones in the building 

 of the temple. Rutherford did good service to histology 

 by the invention of the freezing microtome, an instrument, 

 however, that has served its day, and, except for special 

 work, must give place to more modern and better methods. 

 In his earlier years he paid much attention to electro- 

 physiology, expounded electrotonus, and discussed 

 various points connected with the excitability of nerve. 

 One of his most important communications was made in 

 1870, on the influence of the vagus on the circulation. 

 From 1872 to 1879 he laboured much on the physio- 

 logical action of drugs on the secretion of bile, an in- 

 vestigation originated during Bennett's life-time, and 

 then carried on largely by Rutherford and Dr. .Arthur 

 Gamgee. Rutherford, in his later researches, and 

 assisted by a young Frenchman, William Vignal, went 

 over the old ground, and extended its area. He in- 

 vestigated the subject by a most laborious and trouble- 

 some method, and no doubt laid solid foundations for 

 our knowledge of the actions of various substances on 

 the formation of bile. This work, owing largely to the 

 unreasonable criticisms of those who objected to ob- 

 servations on animals, was the cause of much annoyance 

 and worry, embittering for a time his social life, while it 

 did not bring to him the credit that subsequent years 

 will show it deserved. 



In his later years, Rutherford expounded a theory of 

 muscular contraction that has e.xcited not a little atten- 

 tion, and given rise to much criticism. He was also 

 much interested in the question of the functions of the 

 cochlea in the appreciation of tone, and he advanced the 

 " telephone " theory in opposition to the analytic theory of 

 Helmholtz. Latterly he had grave doubts of the accuracy 

 of Johannes MiiUer's doctrine of the specific energy of 

 nerves, and had he lived he would probably have written 

 on this subject. 



Rutherford was a man of strong personal character- 

 istics. A mannerism impossible to describe, acquired in 

 early manhood, became a second nature, and was at 

 first repellent and liable to be misunderstood. If his 

 criticisms were sometimes severe, his scorn of an opponent 

 scathing and bitter, and his assumption of dignity border- 

 ing on the grotesque, those who knew something of the 

 inner life were aware that he did good by stealth, and 

 that behind all the formality there was a simple, kindly 

 nature. Animated by a deep love of science, possessed 

 with a sense of duty that was unsparing in its demands 

 on all his energies, imbued with a love of the beautiful 

 that found its delight in painting and music, a warm 

 friend, a stern and unyielding foe, as if some of the blood 

 of the old borderers lingered in his veins, Rutherford 

 was a man who made his mark, and who will not soon 

 be forgotten. J- G. M. 



NOTES. 



A FINE monument of Pasteur was unveiled at Lille on April 

 9. The new buildings of the Pasteur Institute at Lille were 

 opened on the same day. 



Sir Richard Thorne Thorne, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been 

 elected a member of the Athenxum Club, under the rule 

 which empowers the annual election of nine persons " of dis- 

 tinguished eminence in science, literature, the arts, or for public 

 services." 



