NATORE 
ae 
THURSDAY, MARCH a1, 1o12. 
AN ENGLISH PHYSIOLOGIST. 
Sir John Burdon-Sanderson: a Memoir by the 
late Lady Burdon-Sanderson. Completed and 
edited by his Nephew and Niece. With a selec- 
tion from his papers and addresses. Pp. 315. 
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911.) Price 1os. 6d. 
net. 
IR JOHN BURDON-SANDERSON belonged 
a to that golden age of natural science, the 
second half of the nineteenth century. Born at the 
close of the year 1828)he was privileged to share 
in, and gifted to profit by, the wealth of discovery 
and conception which enriched biological know- 
ledge from 1850 to 1880. There are many notable 
names in this period, Bernard, Helmholtz, 
Ludwig, du Bois-Reymond, Darwin, Huxley, 
Hooker, Pasteur, and Lister; and among these 
Burdon-Sanderson takes an honoured place; it is 
therefore fitting that some record should exist of 
his life and work. In his speech at Edinburgh 
Pasteur, in 1884, recalled with enthusiasm Robert 
Flint’s exhortation to “remember the past and 
look to the future,” and impressed on the students 
whom he was addressing the advice to “associate 
the cult for great men and great things with 
every thought.’’ The present memoir, begun by 
the late Lady Burdon-Sanderson, and completed 
by Dr. J. S. Haldane and Miss Haldane, is a 
laudable effort towards the fostering of this cult. 
It deals with one who was intimately associated 
with the rise of modern English physiology, and 
is justly regarded as the founder of scientific 
pathology in this country. 
In physiology Sanderson was not only an exact 
investigator, but the upholder of sound experi- 
mental methods; indeed, he extended these to the 
teaching of the subject, thus changing the char- 
acter of such teaching from the didactic to the 
experimental type. In pathology his influence was 
still more potent, as he was the first to undertake 
for sanitary purposes the carrying out of patho- 
logical investigations along strictly scientific lines 
and by rigorously exact methods; it is not too 
much to say that the great developments of patho- 
logical and sanitary science which have taken 
place in England were started by his investiga- 
tions and his influence. 
All this is set forth in the memoir, which must 
therefore be of special interest to the scientific 
reader. In the early chapters a pleasant and 
graphic account is given of Sanderson’s youth, 
education, and early scientific training. This part 
was written by Lady Burdon-Sanderson, and is 
full of interest; it is simply set forth, but as it was 
NO. 2212, VOL. 89] 
evidently a labour of love it gains in force by its 
very simplicity, particularly when, as frequently 
| happens, vivid touches reveal some striking traits 
| of Sanderson’s personality. If the test of effec- 
tive biography be its power to create in the mind 
of the reader a picture of the kind of man who 
forms the subject of the biographer, then, as far 
as they go, these early chapters will endure this 
test. Nor is such presentation unimportant, for, 
like many notable men, Sanderson pre- 
eminently a personality It was his impressive 
character which gave him such influence over 
others, and which, when taken in connection with 
his gifts and scientific achievements, became 
almost overwhelming. He was one of the world’s 
gifted sons, but in addition he was essentially a 
sympathetic intellectual. This was realised not 
only from his speech and manner, but from his 
face and form, so that the value of his approval or 
criticism was greatly enhanced through his _ per- 
sonality and bearing. 
The chapters which, as mentioned above, 
describe his family circle and his development 
bring before the reader this personality, and the 
necessity for a rational basis of conception, com- 
bined with the display of sympathetic toleration 
and interest, is here displayed as the keystone of 
his temperament. 
The later chapters which describe his scientific 
| career in London, and later in Oxford, are not 
so happy as regards their setting. The narra- 
tive is somewhat broken up through the introduc- 
tion of written statements and extracts from 
obituary notices, so that the effect of the whole 
is impaired. The quotations from the numerous 
documents sent to Lady Burdon-Sanderson for the 
purpose of the memoir, deal in some cases with 
similar aspects of Sanderson’s life and work, and 
in this way there is considerable overlapping, with 
its resulting diminution of interest. No doubt it 
was a task of some difficulty to piece together 
the fragments left by Lady Burdon-Sanderson and, 
in doing so, to mould the whole into a continuous 
and effective narrative: It is to be feared, there- 
| fore, that Sanderson's scientific achievements, 
extending as they do over a rather large biological 
field, will be scarcely appreciated by many readers. 
The importance of his discoveries in electro- 
biology, of his modifications in physiological 
teaching, of his epoch-making reports to the 
| Privy Council on tuberculosis and allied subjects, 
| and of his work at Oxford as the real founder of 
her medical school, is not so manifest as it might 
have been owing to the arrangement of this part 
of the memoir. But the account is in itself fairly 
| complete, and it is emphasised by appending to 
the mémoir a selected number of addresses given 
D 
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