THOMAS SOUTHWOOD SMITH.

Thomas Southwood Smith, one of the most enlightened philosophers, and most skilful of physicians, is only now beginning to receive his due share of public estimation. For many a long year he was content to work on, without any recognition from the many, that he was laboring for their good; this happens to every philanthropist, more or less; and numbers go to the grave, exhausted by the great christian work, in poverty and neglect; but it sometimes happens, that the world is shamed into a reluctant acknowledgment of the debt it owes to the unselfish benefactor of his species; this is the case with the benevolent author of the "Divine Government,” who is now reaping the harvest of his labor and selfdenial. It is not, however, only in his public capacity, as philanthropist, that he is to be respected and loved. His life is consistent, and his good offices are always at the disposal of his friends. The day that sees him working at a public meeting for the benefit of the million, beholds him cheering the poor sick scholar in his lonely chamber, and bringing not only health by his professional talents, but also peace of mind by his advice and assistance. Eminently practical in his views, he is not content with pointing out the way, he helps the traveller on his errand; he is large-handed as well as large-hearted; and the perusal of his writings brings us to the conclusion that he is large-headed too: this is the summing up of a true man, but it belongs only to the Alfred's and the Wash

ington's of our race: on the tomb of few men truly can the epitaph of "large-hearted, large-headed and large-handed" be engraven, so that the millions who read it might feel its truth.

Dr. Smith is not a physician only in the sense of drugs and compounds, he is a student on a wider range than the Royal College contemplates when it hands over the magic diploma; he rightly considers that a man who deals with so precious a treasure as life, and handles so mysterious a machinery as the human frame, (so fearfully and wonderfully made!) should not approach it without due preparation; and he therefore devoted himself to those subsidiary branches of human science which throw so much light on the organs and mechanism of man: this naturally led him still farther to extend his views; for when he beheld how beneficently the Creator works in all his physical appliances; when he knew that God had given fragrance to the flower, beauty to sight, music to the ear, and made the nerves so tremblingly alive to all the pleasurable sensations of existence; when he saw that the corporeal part of man, so soon destined to perish, was so admirably framed for enjoyment, and so lavishly and minutely endowed; the conclusion was forced upon him, that the same Almighty Being, in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, "would not contradict his own system by creating a moral anomaly, nor call into being that wonderful essence, the soul of man, merely to work out the unaccountable doctrines of Human Theology. That beautiful work called "The Divine Government," was the result of these investigations and deliberations; this he composed during the intervals of his college studies in 1814, and it at once established his reputation as a profound and eloquent writer. The singular clearness of its style, the fervency of its tone, and the hopeful patient spirit breathing through it, renders this one of the most cheering volumes we have ever read.

Byron, Moore and Crabbe have registered their admiration,

and Mr. Wordsworth in a letter says: "The view Dr. Smith takes is so consonant with the ideas we entertain of Divine Goodness, that were it not for some scriptural difficulties, I should give this book my unqualified approbation." The argument is, that it seems probable, judging by analogy, that pain is a correcting process, whether physical, mental, or spiritual; and that the whole human race will be finally saved. As we do not intend rushing into the forbidden grounds of polemics, we merely state the subject under discussion, and pass on to the consideration of his other writings.

After the completion of his medical terms, Dr. Southwood Smith spent several years in the practice of his profession in the West of England, where he married. On the death of his wife he came to London with his two young daughters, and attached himself to one of the metropolitan hospitals.

He was soon after appointed physician to the London Fever Hospital, which distinction he retains. He employed his leisure in the composition of a "Treatise on Fever," which at once took its position as a standard medical work. He was interrupted in his labors by two severe attacks of that insidious disease which he had been investigating, and on both occasions his life was despaired of.

On his restoration to health, he assisted in the formation of the "Westminster Review," and wrote the article on Bentham's System of Education in the first number. To this liberal minded Review he became a regular contributor; and it was his papers on the anatomical schools which brought the abuses of the old system of surgery so prominently before the public. He has reprinted the main part of these articles under the title of "The use of the dead to the living." In this pamphlet he points out, with his accustomed force, the necessity of having models to study, and the injustice and wickedness of compelling the medical student to have recourse to that revolting class of functionaries, the resurrection men. To each member of the two houses of legislature a copy of this work was

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sent, and it is well known to have prepared the way for the passing of the present law, which has extinguished the horrible traffic alluded to.

Emboldened by his success in removing this evil, Dr. Smith turned his attention to the subject of Quarantine, and endeavored to obtain a revision of the present regulations, which are considered by the best authorities to be not only futile, but actually calculated to spread the evil they pretend to arrest. As all progression is a work of time, more or less, we may hope to see this relic of the ignorance and superstition of the earlier times finally swept away.

His next scientific labors were some articles he wrote on physiology and medicine for the "Cyclopædia," and soon after he furnished his celebrated treatise on "Animal Physiology" to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

The success of this work suggested the idea of treating the subject in a still more comprehensive manner, and in 1834 appeared the first volume of "The Philosophy of Health." Three years afterwards the second appeared, and, so far as it has gone, it presents the completest series of general rules for health hitherto published. It begins by explaining the substances of which the body is composed, describes the organs and their various functions, deducing from them the laws which nature evidently declares. This is made the basis of a loftier philosophy, which, rising from the physical, proceeds to unfold the mental; and on the mental, builds the grand moral nature of man.

The style is characterized by Dr. Smith's usual force and simplicity, and succeeds in conveying to the reader's mind a clear idea of operations generally difficult to explain. We would particularly challenge attention to the masterly chapter on sensation; the exquisitely complex organization by which that peculiar function of the animal machine is produced, is a triumph of felicitous exposi

tion. Even the common, and to us apparently unnecessary state called pain, seems suddenly invested with a mission indispensable to the safety of the body; in short, a perfect knowledge of the subject is evinced, and this is communicated to all in the simplest, and yet the most graceful of forms. Health becomes a beauty, as well as a strength and a necessity; and the prosaic and commonplace processes of animal nature, are endowed with an interest and poetry hitherto considered incompatable with science.

It was about this time that Dr. Smith delivered his celebrated lecture over the dead body of Jeremy Bentham; he had long been the disciple and physician of that great philosopher, and attended him in his last illness. A characteristic anecdote is related by him of the expiring philanthropist.

During his last illness he asked his medical attendant to tell him candidly if there was any prospect of his recovery. On being informed that nature was too exhausted to allow of such a hope, he said, with his usual serenity, "Very well, be it so; then minimise pain!"

In order to show the world his superiority to the common prejudices of mankind, he left, by will, his body to Dr. Smith for anatomical purposes, and requested that after dissection his skeleton should be preserved. His friend fulfilled his desire, and there, in the Doctor's house, in 38 Finsbury Square, (curiously enough formerly the residence of Dr. Birkbeck, part of whose family still reside in it,) is to be seen in a large mahogany case, with a glass front, the venerable Bentham, sitting as though alive, in a suit of his own clothes, and with his veritable ash stick in his hand. An attempt was made to preserve the head and face, but the expression of the countenance being very painful, a mask of wax (an admirable likeness) was made, and put over the "grinning face of death!"

The doctor delivered a lecture over the dead body of his friend in the Webb-street School of Anatomy, on June 9th, 1832. There,