"suavis autem est et vehementer s?pe utilis jocus et faceti?."—cic. de orat.
abernethy's humour was very peculiar; and though there was of course something in the matter, there was a good deal more, as it appeared to us, in the manner. the secret of humour, we apprehend, lies in the juxtaposition, either expressed or implied, of incongruities, and it is not easy to conceive anything humourous which does not involve these conditions. we have sometimes thought there was just this difference in the humour of abernethy, as contrasted with that of sidney smith. in smith's, there was something that, told by whom it might be, was always ludicrous. abernethy's generally lay in the telling.
"the jest's propriety lies in the ear
of him who hears it, never in the tongue
of him that makes it,"
although true, was still to be taken in rather a different sense from that in which it is usually received. the former (a far higher species of humour) may be recorded; the dramatic necessities of the other occasion it to die with the author. the expression abernethy threw into his humour (though of course without that broadness which is excusable in the drama, but which would have been out of place in a philosophical discourse) was a quiet, much-subdued colouring, between the good-nature of dowton, and (a little closer perhaps to the latter) the more quiet and gentlemanly portions of munden.
few old pupils will forget the story of the major who had dislocated his jaw.
this accident is a very simple one, and easily put right; but,235 having once happened, it is apt to recur on any unusual extension of the lower jaw. abernethy used to represent this as a frequent occurrence with an hilarious major; but as it generally happened at mess, the surgeon went round to him and immediately put it in again. one day, however, the major was dining about fourteen miles from the regiment, and, in a hearty laugh, "out went his jaw." they sent for the medical man, whom, said abernethy, we must call the apothecary. well, at first, he thought that the jaw was dislocated; but he began to pull and to show that he knew nothing about the proper mode of putting it right again. on this, the major appeared to be very excited, and vociferated inarticulately in a strange manner; when, all at once, the doctor, as if he had just hit on the nature of the case, suggested that the major's complaint was in his brain, and that he could not be in his right mind. on hearing this, the major became furious, which was regarded as confirmatory of the doctor's opinion; they accordingly seized him, confined him in a strait-waistcoat and put him to bed, and the doctor ordered that the barber should be sent for to shave the head, and a blister to be applied "to the part affected."
the major, fairly beaten, ceased making resistance, but made the best signs his situation and his imperfect articulation allowed, for pen and paper. this request, being hailed as indicative of returning rationality, was complied with; and, as soon as he was sufficiently freed from his bonds, he wrote—"for god's sake send for the surgeon of the regiment." this was accordingly done, and the jaw readily reduced, as it had been often before. "i hope," added abernethy, "you will never forget how to reduce a dislocated jaw."
we think that what we have said of the style of his humour cannot be very incorrect, from knowing that the impressions of one of his oldest pupils and greatest admirers were almost identical with the foregoing. i recollect it being said of john bannister, that the reason his acting pleased everybody was that he was always a gentleman; an extremely difficult thing, we should imagine, in handling some of the freer parts of our comic dialogues. abernethy's humour (exceptionally indeed, but occasionally236 a little broad) never suggested the idea of vulgarity; and, as we have said, every joke had its mission. then, at times, though there was not much humour, yet a promptness of repartee gave it that character.
"mr. abernethy," said a patient, "i have something the matter, sir, with this arm. there, oh! (making a particular motion with the limb) that, sir, gives me great pain." "well, what a fool you must be to do it, then," said abernethy.
one of the most interesting facts in relation to abernethy's lecturing, was, that however great his natural capacity, he certainly owed very much to careful study and practice; and we cannot but think that it is highly encouraging to a more careful education for this mode of teaching, to know the difficulty that even such a man as abernethy had for some few years in commanding his self-possession. to those who only knew him in his zenith or his decline, this will appear extraordinary; yet, to a careful observer, there were many occasions when it was easy to see that he did not appear so entirely at ease without some effort. he was very impatient of interruption; an accidental knock at the door of the theatre, which, by mistake of some stranger, would occasionally happen, would disconcert him considerably; and once, when he saw some pupil joking or inattentive, he stopped, and with a severity of manner i hardly ever saw before or afterwards, said: "if the lecture, sir, is not interesting to you, i must beg you to walk out."
there were, as we shall hereafter observe, perhaps physical reasons for this irritability. he never hesitated, as we occasionally hear lecturers do, nor ever used any notes. when he came to any part that he perhaps wished to impress, he would pause and think for a second or two, with his class singularly silent. it was a fine moment. we recollect being once at his lecture with the late professor macartney, who had been a student of abernethy's68. macartney said, "what can it be that enables him to give so much interest to what we have so often heard before?" we believe237 it to have been nothing but a steady observance of rules, combined with an admirable power matured by study.
that which, above everything, we valued in the whole of abernethy's lectures, was what can hardly be expressed otherwise than by the term, tone. with an absence of all affectation, with the infusion of all sorts of different qualities: with humour, hilarity, lively manner, sometimes rather broad illustrations, at other times, calm and philosophical, with all the character of deep thought and acute penetration; indignation at what was wrong or unfeeling, and pathos in relation to irremediable calamity; still the thing which surpassed all, was the feeling, with which he inoculated the pupils, of a high and conscientious calling. he had a way which excited enthusiasm without the pupil knowing why. we are often told by lecturers of the value of knowledge for various purposes—for increasing the power and wealth of the country—for multiplying the comforts and pleasures of society—for amassing fortunes, and for obtaining what the world usually means by the term distinction. but abernethy created a feeling distinct from and superior to all mere utilitarian purposes. he made one feel the mission of a conscientious surgeon to be a high calling, and spurned, in manner as well as matter, the more trite and hackneyed modes of inculcating these things. you had no set essay, no long speeches. the moral was like a golden thread artfully interwoven in a tissue to which it gives a diffusive lustre; which, pervading it everywhere, is obtrusive nowhere.
for example, the condition attached to the performance of our lowest duties (operations), were, the well-ascertained inefficacy of our best powers directed to judicious treatment; the crowning test—the conviction that, placed in the same circumstances, we would have the same operation performed on ourselves. much of the suggestive lies in these directions. our sympathies toward the victims of mistake or ignorance, excited by the relation of their sufferings, were heightened by the additional mention of any good quality the patient might have possessed, or advantage of which he might have been deprived; and thus that interest secured which a bare narration of the case might have failed to awaken.
a father, who, in subservience to the worldly prospects of his238 son, placed him in a situation to which he was unequal, and thus forgot his first duty, the health of his offspring, was the "murderer" of his child. another victim, we have seen, was as "brave a fellow as ever stepped," &c.
humanity and science went hand in hand. his method of discovering the nature of dislocations and fractures, by attention to the relative position of parts, was admirable; and few of his pupils, who have had much experience, have failed to prove the practical excellence of them. he repudiated nothing more than the too commonly regarded test, in fractures, of "grating, or crepitus." nothing distinguished his examination of a case more than his gentleness, unless it was the clearness with which he delivered his opinion.
to show how important gentleness is—a surgeon had a puzzling case of injury to the elbow. he believed that he knew the nature of the accident, and that he had put the parts right; but still the joint remained in a half-straight position; and the surgeon, who knew his business, became alarmed, lest something had escaped him, and that the joint would be stiff. he proposed a consultation. the joint was examined with great gentleness, and after abernethy's plan. the boy experienced no pain. everything appeared in its natural position. the surgeon said: "now, my boy, bend your arm a little, but no farther than just to reach my finger; and not as much as that, if it gives you any pain." this the boy did very gently. after waiting a few minutes, the surgeon again told him to bend it a little more, and upon the same conditions; and so on, until, in a very short space of time—perhaps eight or ten minutes—the arm had been completely bent. the boy had been alarmed, and the muscles had become so sensitive that they held the parts with the most painful tenacity; but, beyond this, there was nothing the matter.
we cannot help thinking that abernethy's benevolence had a great influence in directing some of his happiest contributions to practice. we consider that every sufferer with that serious accident, fracture of the neck of the thigh bone within the joint, owes a great portion of any recovery he may have, to abernethy. it was he239 who was the real means of overthrowing a dangerous dogma, that such cases could not unite by bone, and who opposed the practice consequent on it, by which reparation by bone became impossible. there was hardly any subject which he touched, of which he did not take some view more or less original; and his reasoning was always particularly simple and to the point. no man, we believe, ever exceeded him in the skill he possessed in conveying ideas from one mind into another; but he did a great deal more: those who really studied him were sent away thinking, and led to work with a kind of pleasure, which was in some sense distinct from any merely practical or professional interest.
he contrived to imbue you with the love of philosophical research in the abstract—with an interest in truth for its own sake; you found yourself remembering the bare facts, not so much from conscious efforts of memory, as from the suggestive interest of the observations with which they were so frequently associated. in going over one of his lectures alone, they seem to grow and expand under your own reflections. we know not how to express the effect they produced: they seemed to give new pleasure on repetition, to purify your thoughts scarcely less than they animated your onward studies.
in studying their more suggestive passages, you would now and then feel surprise at the number and variety of important practical relations arising out of a single proposition. we are here merely stating our own early impressions of his power. what we always really felt was, that, great as was the excellence of these lectures in a scientific or professional sense, there was something more excellent still in the element they contained of intellectual expansion and of moral improvement.
we cannot indeed say that they had no faults; but we should be hard driven to point them out: and although we feel how short our attempt to give some idea of his mode of proceeding must fall of doing him justice, still, if there be any truth at all in our representation, it is quite clear that his negative excellences alone must have implied no ordinary powers. but we must conclude: "quid multa? istum audiens equidem sic judicare soleo; quidquid aut addideris aut mutaveris aut detraxeris, vitiosius et deterius futurum."
