mind you bear to your angelic sister! the same sweet smile of complacency and affection, the same ever-wakeful attention to alleviate pain and to communicate pleasure! Heaven grant that you may as much resemble her in every Christian grace as you do in every moral virtue!"-p. 134. subjected to a similar process. After the lapse of a few weeks, the ill-fated animal was killed, the vessels injected, and preparations were made from each of the limbs."-p. 142. It is impossible to peruse this paragraph without feelings of pain, akin to disgust, and even horror. The poor animal, which had trusted to the mercy, as it were to the honor and humanity, of man-was dealt with as though it had been a mere mass of inanimate matter! One's feelings revolt from the whole procedure: but the question after all is, whether reason and the necessity of the case, afford any justification for such an act. If not, then it will be difficult, as the reader will hereafter see, to vindicate the memory of Sir Astley Cooper from the charge of systematic barbarity. On this subject, however, we shall content ourselves, for the present, with giving two passages from the work under consideration- -one expressing very forcibly and closely the opinions of Mr. Bransby Cooper, the other those of an eminent physician and friend of Mr. Cooper, Dr. Blundell : During his sojourn in the country, he seems to have devoted himself zealously to the acquisition of professional knowledge, and to have formed an acquaintance with an able fellow-student, Mr. Holland, who in the ensuing year became his companion at Mr. Cline's, at whose residence they prosecuted their anatomical studies with the utmost zeal and system. During this session, Astley Cooper found time, amidst all his harassing engagements, to attend a course of lectures, delivered by John Hunter, near Leicester square. It required no slight amount of previous training and scientific acquisition, to follow the illustrious lecturer through his deep, novel, and comprehensive disquisitions, enhanced as the difficulty was by his imperfect and unsatisfactory mode of expression and delivery. Nothing, however, could withstand the determination of Astley Cooper, "By this means only," says Mr. Cooper, speakwho devoted all the powers of his mind to ing of experiments on living animals," are theomastering the doctrines enunciated by Hunt-ries proved erroneous or correct, new facts brought er, and confirming their truth by his own dissections. The results were such as to afford satisfaction to the high-spirited student for the remainder of his life; but of these matters we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. During this session, he caught the gaol-fever from a capital convict whom he visited in Newgate, and, but for the affectionate attentions of Mr. Cline and his family, would, in all probability, have sunk under the attack. As soon as he could be safely removed, he was carried to his native county, and in a month or two's time was restored to health. to light, important discoveries made in physiology, and sounder doctrines and more scientific modes of treatment arrived at. Nor is this all; for the surgeon's hand becomes tutored to act with steadiral abhorrence of giving pain to the subject of ness, while he is under the influence of the natuexperiment, and he himself is thus schooled for the severer ordeal of operating on the human frame. I may mention another peculiar advantage in proof of the necessity of such apparent cruelty-that no practising on the dead body can accustom the mind of the surgeon to the physical phenomena presented to his notice in operations on the living. The detail of the various differences which exist under the two circumstances need hardly be explained, as there are few minds to which they will not readily present themselves." 66 It was during this session that he seems to have commenced his experiments on living-p. 144. animals, for the purpose of advancing anatomical and physiological knowledge. The following incident we shall give in the language of Mr. Holland, the companion above alluded to, of Astley Cooper: "I recollect one day being out with him, when a dog followed us, and accompanied us home, little foreseeing the fate that awaited him. He was confined for a few days, till we had ascertained that no owner would come to claim him, and then brought up to be the subject of various operations. The first of these was the tying one of the femoral arteries. When poor Chance, for so we appropriately named the dog, was sufficiently recovered from this, one of the humeral arteries was They who object," says Dr. Blundell, “to the putting of animals to death for a scientific purpose, do not reflect that the death of an animal is a very different thing from that of man. To an animal, death is an eternal sleep; to man, it is the commencement of a new and untried state of existence. . . . Shall it be said that the objects of physiological science are not worth the sacrifice of a few animals! Men are constantly forming the most erroneous estimates of the comparative importance of objects in this world. Of what importance is it now to mankind whether Antony or Augustus filled the Imperial chair? And what will it matter, a few centuries hence, whether England or France swept the ocean with her fleets? But mankind will always be equally interested in the great truths deducible from science, and in the inferences derived from physiological | but in the sister sciences. He was little experiments. I will ask, then, whether the inflicmore than nineteen years of age, and even tion of pain on the lower animals in experiments then an admirable anatomist, and bent upon is not justified by the object for which those experiments are instituted, namely, the advance- extracting, during his brief sojourn, every ment of physiological knowledge? Is not the possible addition to his professional knowinfliction of pain, or even of death, on man, often ledge. He instantly set about his work in justified by the end for which it is inflicted? earnest, hiring a room for six shillings a week Does not the general lead his troops to slaughter, at No. 5 Bristo street, close to the principal to preserve the liberties of his country? It is not scene of his studies, and dining for a shilling the infliction of pain or death for justifiable objects, a day at a neighboring eating-house. This but it is the taking a savage pleasure in the in- he did, not from compulsory economy, for fliction of pain or death, which is reprehensible. ... Here, then, we take our stand; we defend he was amply supplied with money, and free the sacrifice of animals in so far as it is calcula- in spending it, but from a determination to ted to contribute to the improvement of science; put himself out of the way of temptation of and, in those parts of physiological science imme- any kind, and to pursue his studies without diately applicable to medical practice, we main- the chance of disturbance. His untiring zeal tain that such a sacrifice is not only justifiable, and assiduity, with his frequent manifestation but a sacred duty."-pp. 145, 146. of superior capacity and acquirements, very soon attracted the notice of his professors, and secured him their marked approbation. During the seven months which he spent there, he acquired a great addition to his knowledge and reputation. His acute and observant mind found peculiar pleasure in comparing English and Scottish methods of scientific procedure, and deriving thence new views and suggestions for future use. chief professors whom he attended were, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Black, Dr. Hamilton, and Dr. Rutherford; and he always spoke of the advantages which their teaching and practice had conferred upon him, with the highest respect. Of Dr. Gregory, Mr. Cooper tells us several interesting anecdotes, illustrative of a rough, but generous and noble character.* On the 1st December, 1787, Astley Cooper was elected a member of the Royal Medical Society, the meetings of which he attended. regularly; and so greatly distinguished himself in discussion, by his knowledge and ability, that on his departure he was offered the presidency if he would return. always based his success on these occasions, upon the novel and accurate doctrines and views which he had obtained from John Hunter and Mr. Cline. His engaging manners made him a universal favorite at the college, as was evidenced by his fellow-students electing him the president of a society established to protect their rights against certain supposed usurpations of the profes We have ourselves thought much upon this painful and difficult subject, and are bound to say that we feel unable to answer the reasonings of these gentlemen. The animals have been placed within our power, by our common Maker, to take their labor, and their very lives, for our benefit-abstaining from the infliction of needless pain on those whom God has made susceptible of pain. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, (Proverbs, xii, 10,) that is to say, does not wantonly inflict pain upon it, or destroy it; but if a surgeon honestly believed that he could successfully perform an operation on a human being, so as to save life, if he first tried the operation upon a living animal, but could not without it, we apprehend, all sentimentality and prejudice apart, that he would be justified in making that experiment. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.—(Luke xii. 6, 7.) The reader need not be reminded whose awful words these are; nor shall we dilate upon the inferences to be drawn from them, with reference to the point under consideration. Availing himself of a clause in his articles of pupilage, entitling him to spend one session in Edinburgh, he resolved to do so in the winter of 1787-taking his departure for the north in the month of October. Seldom has a young English medical student gone to the Scottish metropolis under better auspices than those under which Astley Cooper found himself established there, at the commencement of the medical year. He had letters of introduction to the most eminent men, not only in his own profession, sors. The He He was also elected a member of the Speculative Society, where he read a paper in support of Dr. Berkeley's theory of the non-existence of matter. From the character of Sir Astley Cooper's mind and studies, we are not disposed to give him credit for being * Vol. i. pp. 161, 164. able to deal satisfactorily with such a subject, or, indeed, with anything metaphysical. Though a letter from Professor Alison* represents Astley Cooper as having “taken an interest in the metaphysical questions which then occupied much of the attention of the Edinburgh students," we suspect that for "metaphysical" should be substituted "political." He himself speaks thus frankly on the subject" Dugald Stewart was beyond my power of appreciation. Metaphysics were foreign to my mind, which was never captivated by speculation." Throughout his career he proved himself to have here taken a proper view of his capacity and tendency. He was pre-eminently a practical man, taught in that spirit, and enjoined the cultivation of "That is the way, sir," he would say, "to learn your profession-look for your self; never mind what other people may say-no opinion or theories can interfere with information acquired from dissection." Again, in his great work on Dislocations and Fractures, he speaks in the same strain : it. "Young medical men find it so much easier a task to speculate than to observe, that they are too apt to be pleased with some sweeping theory which saves them the trouble of observing the processes of nature; and they have afterwards, when they embark in their professional practice, not only everything still to learn, but also to abandon those false impressions which hypothesis is sure to create. Nothing is known in our profession by guess; and I do not believe that, from the first dawn of medical science to the present moment, a single correct idea has ever emanated from conjecture alone. It is right, therefore, that those who are studying their profession should be aware that there is no short road to knowledge; that observations on the diseased living, examinations of the dead, and experiments upon living animals, are the only sources of true knowledge; and that deductions from these are the solid basis of legitimate theory."--p. 53. In one respect, he excelled all his Scottish companions-in the quickness and accuracy with which he judged of the nature of eases brought into the Infirmary-a power which he gratefully referred to the teaching and example of his gifted tutor Mr. Cline. The young English student became, indeed, so conspicuous for his professional acquirements and capabilities, that he was constantly consulted, in difficult cases, by his fellowstudents, and even by the house-surgeons. This circumstance had a natural tendency to sharpen his observation of all the cases com 66 ing under his notice, and to develope his power of ready discrimination. This, however, was by no means his only obligation to the Scottish medical school; he was indebted to the peculiar method of its scholastic arrangements, for the correction of a great fault, of which he had become conscious-viz: the want of any systematic disposition of his multifarious acquirements. This order," says Mr. Cooper, "was of the greatest importance to Sir Astley Cooper, and gave him not only a facility for acquiring fresh knowledge, but also stamped a value on the information he already possessed, but which from its previous want of arrangement, was scarcely ever in a state to be applied to its full and appropriate use." The correction of this fault, which gave him afterwards his well-known facility of using for each particular case that came before him, all his knowledge and experience that in any way could be brought to bear upon it, Sir Astley always attributed to the school at Edinburgh. If this advantage had been gained, the seven months spent in that city were, indeed, well bestowed. At the close of the session, Astley Cooper determined, before quitting the country, to make the tour of the Highlands. He purchased, therefore, two horses, and hired a servant, and set off on his exhilarating and invigorating expedition without any companion. "I have heard him," says his biographer,* " describe the unalloyed delight with which he left the confinement of the capital to enter into the wild beauties of the mountain scenery. It seemed as if the whole world was before him, and that there were no limits to the extent of his range." He has left no record of the impressions which his tour had produced on his mind. On his return, while in the north of England, he suddenly found himself in a sad scrape; he had spent all his money, and was forced to dismiss his servant, sell one of his horses, and even to pawn his watch, to enable himself to return home! This dire dilemma had been occasioned, it seems, by a grand entertainment, inconsiderately expensive, which he had given to his friends and acquaintance on quitting Edinburgh. He himself said that this entertainment made a deep impression on his mind, and prevented him from ever falling into a similar difficulty. To this little incident may doubtless be referred a considerable change in his disposition with regard to pecuniary matters. When young, he was liberal, even to extravagance, and utterly careless about preserving any ratio between his expenditure and his means. Many traits of his generosity are given in these volumes. Astley Cooper always spoke of his sojourn in Scotland with satisfaction and gratitude; not only on account of the solid acquisition of professional knowledge which he had made there, and the generous cordiality and confidence with which he had been treated by both professors and students; but also of the social pleasures which he had enjoyed, in such few intervals of relaxation as his ravenous love of study permited. He was, we repeat, formed for society. We have ourselves frequently seen him, and regard him as having been one of the handsomest and most fascinating men of our time. Not a trace was there in his symmetrical features, and their gay, frank expression, of the exhausting, repulsive labor of the dissecting-room and hospital. You would, in looking at him, have thought him a mere man of pleasure and fashion; so courtly and cheerful were his unaffected carriage, countenance, and manners. The instant that you were with him, you felt at your ease. How such a man must have enjoyed the social circles of Edinburgh! How many of its fair maidens' hearts must have fluttered when in proximity to their enchanting English visitor! Thus their views must have been darkened by regret at his departure. And let us place on record the impressions which the fair Athenians produced upon Astley Cooper. "He always spoke of the Edinburgh ladies with the highest encomiums; and used to maintain that they possessed an affability and simplicity of manners which he had not often found elsewhere, in conjunction with the superior intellectual attainments which at the same time generally distinguished them."* But, in justice to their southern sisters, we must hint, though in anticipation, that he twice selected a wife from among them. * Vol. i. pp. 172, 173. TO THE AUTHOR OF MARY BARTON. BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. A FEW have borne me honor in my day, And they do wisely; I might do the same If strength could gird and youth could garland me. From the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review. POPULAR LIFE IN BERLIN. Berliner Volksleben. (Popular Life in Berlin.) By Ad. Brennglas. Leipsig. 1847. THOSE who visited the Prussian capital | last autumn, found that a striking change had taken place in its external character and aspect. Instead of the showy equipages that used to crowd the streets, only a solitary carriage would now and then hurry by, as if ashamed to be seen; the plumes and the epaulettes, and the glittering jackets that were wont to be the glory of the promenade, "Unter den Linden,' were stowed away in odd corners, like things to be ashamed of; the lieutenants of the Royal Prussian Guard -the pride and ornament of the confectioner's shop, who used to look down with such pitying wonder on all who were not of the guard, or, perhaps, not even of noble birth if they made their appearance at all were unrecognizable, for they had cast their gay skins, and were reduced to the level of mere mortals. Before the public buildings, the place of martial-looking grenadiers had been supplied by scrubby little burghers in ambiguous costume, whose warlike weapons jolted about uneasily on their shoulders, as not accustomed to the place; and, to crown all, a complete market for cheap newspapers had been set up under the windows of the palace of the Prince of Prussia, and politics -the dainty dish so long in Prussia thought only fit to set before a king, or be tasted in circles of the initiated-was become the common food of the million, its most sacred mysteries were being bawled about the streets by mere ragamuffins. But all this was some months ago. It is not improbable that the more recent turns of the wheel of fate may have restored the uniforms to their pride of place, and that Berlin is itself again. In ordinary times a description of popular life in a great city, faithful when it was written, would not require much alteration within less than two years after; and as the general current of social existence is often less affected by political events than, at a distance, we are apt to imagine, it is not impossible that the changes that have taken place, though striking to the eye of a stranger, lie mostly on the surface. We have heard of an old lady who had lived in Paris through the whole period from the first French Revolution to Louis the Eighteenth, and who yet never heard of Buonaparte. Men are born and die, marry and are given in marriage, and go through the majority of daily occupations, better or worse, even in times of revolution. In some cases, no doubt, where the strongest feelings of the human heart have been concerned in political changes, society has been at once stirred to its depths; but frequently the breeze has seemed but to have ruffled the surface, leaving the great current of life sweeping on in the same direction as before. The changes produced in it have not been felt till long afterwards. It is not impossible that this may be found to be the case in Prussia; there is some appearance of the movement having been rather political than social, exhibiting itself more in noisy demonstrations in the street, than making itself felt in the shop and the fireside; and we have no doubt that the sayings and doings of the Berliners, as set down in the humorous and life-like sketches before us, may be found on the whole as accurate as on their first publication. We have been induced to notice them, because we know of no other book that conveys so lively an idea of the capital of Prussia, "its daily walk and conversation;" and also because it appears likely that English readers, who have acquired their German chiefly from books, might be at first repelled by the odd Berlin cockney dialect, in which most of these sketches are written. Such as have visited the country, especially if they have had any intercourse with the classes described, will find little difficulty, and they will seldom or never be disgusted by the coarse caricature style so |