Sir John Scott Bur don- Sanderson, Bart, xvii 



many years the methods employed by him for the teaching of students were, 

 in this respect, in advance of those which existed upon the Continent. 



The stress which he laid upon this part of physiological training was the 

 logical outcome of his firm belief in the application of experimental methods 

 to medical science. Quite apart from the obvious advantages which such 

 practical teaching offers through its facilitating the acquisition of certain 

 facts, work of this character by students appeared to him of the utmost value 

 in engendering a mental attitude of primary importance. He believed that 

 it cultivated those powers of observation, experimental inquiry and reflection, 

 in regard to living phenomena, which have subsequently to be brought to bear 

 on the human subject by all those who undertake the responsible duties of 

 clinical practice. Throughout the whole of his life he held that, since medical 

 science remained inexact and empirical unless it rested upon the sure 

 foundation of physiological and pathological knowledge, and since this 

 knowledge could itself be advanced only by experimental methods, the highest 

 interests of society were bound up with the practice of such methods. 

 Whether or not infectious diseases are a product of civilisation, they are 

 certainly fostered by man's social habits and communicated by him to animals, 

 and the responsibility lies with man to utilise to the utmost his mental 

 powers for their removal or delimitation, This responsibility was appre- 

 ciated in its fullest extent by Burdon-Sanderson, and all his work and 

 teaching was tinged with his endeavour to faithfully discharge the trust 

 which his position and mental powers involved. He had in consequence an 

 earnestness of purpose which was felt by all those who came under his 

 influence. The words in which he set forth, in 1896, the greatness of 

 Ludwig as a teacher, are applicable to himself : men, many of whom were 

 already nearly of his own age, rallied round him, " attracted in the first 

 instance by his discoveries, they were held by the force of his character, and 

 became permanently associated with him in his work as his loyal friends and 

 followers, in the highest sense his scholars." The large number of his 

 students who now hold official appointments in connection with medicine, 

 surgery, hygiene, pathology, and physiology, will acknowledge the truth which 

 the foregoing sentence expresses. 



The present writer is one of those who, as a student, came, in 1874, under 

 the sway of his inspiring personality, and on reflecting as to the various 

 factors which gave this sway its extraordinarily potent character, it would 

 appear that the following features may be specially distinguished. His 

 commanding appearance and striking individuality ; the intellectual beauty 

 of his face, which is so well displayed in the print copied from a photograph taken 

 by Miss Acland, at Oxford ; the peculiar charm of his manner and diction ; 

 the sympathetic interest with which he followed the work and thought of 

 others, young or old ; above all, that earnestness of purpose to which allusion 

 has been already made. Like Ludwig, he strove " to unite his life-work as 

 an investigator with the highest kind of teaching." This life-work, extending 

 for over fifty years, coincided with what is generally regarded as the most 



VOL. LXXIX. — B. C 



