and deep research; but he was encouraged by the consideration that, although the "Study of Medicine" has been used as a text-book for several years in this country, and is thought to be indispensable to every medical library, it contains but few allusions to the important results of American practice, etc.

The diffidence which Dr. Doane felt when he assumed the responsibility of issuing a new and revised edition of Good's august work was likewise felt by his learned countryman, Dr. Cooper, in issuing the fourth edition. It will be understood that the author had died before this time, and could not be consulted.

In the author's own preface to the work he writes:

Whatever may be the theory of the practice advanced in the ensuing volumes, the author will generally be found to have taken nothing on trust, but to support, or illustrate his assertions by authorities which he has endeavored to give with some degree of copiousness from ancient as well as modern times, so as to render the work in a certain sense a summary of the general history of medicine in most ages and countries.

A glance at the author's pages is sufficient to verify this statement.

It is no easy matter to estimate the influence of a man of the character of John Mason Good. One may concede that his influence on the course of medical thought in his day was inconsiderable.

Brown was thundering in London, and pouring invective hot and heavy against those who did not accept his ill-conceived doctrines, and creating a wild tumult of huzzas on the part of his thoughtless, enthusiastic supporters; while Good was in his study studying the works of monarchs of thought, and evolving in his brain a series of essays comprehending a concise and accurate record of what was really known in the art and science of Medicine, that should be a guide to the student and practitioner of that art. He did not teach medicine. He held no professorship in any university. He had neither pupils nor followers; and one can imagine that his practice was limited, for he had no time to make himself known to the public and thus to cultivate a clientèle. His health was poor and the time at his command to execute the tasks he had undertaken must have seemed too short to him. As it was, he lived just long enough to revise and add to and amend the second edition of his "Study," dying at the age of sixty-one, in 1827, when most philosophers are in their prime.

It is no easy task, I repeat, therefore, to estimate the influence of Dr. Good on medicine. Down to 1840, or thereabouts, there had been six editions of his "Study" sold in America, and four editions of it sold in London, which probably includes the Continent. It was a text-book in the medical colleges in Europe and America down to within living memory, and was warmly appreciated by

the scholars in the profession of which they constitute a small class-too small. But whatever the influence of Dr. Good was, be it little or be it much, it was always for good. Like Cullen and Galen, like Boerhaave and Haller, he helped to exalt medicine above the position of a trade. He maintained the dignity of the medical character,-maintained, did we say?-he gave it dignity, because he was a representative of the true type of a physician; a fount of wisdom for the weak, the halt, and the blind to go to for balm to cure their woes and for advice to strengthen failing courage. That Dr. Good felt the magnitude of his responsibility as a physician is well disclosed in the prayer which at his request was published in an edition of his "Study," which was on the eve of being brought out at the time of his death. We transcribe it here:

Form of Prayer

O thou great Restorer of health, strength, and comfort, grant thy blessing upon the professional duties in which I may this day engage. Give me judgment to discern disease, and skill to treat it; and crown with thy favor the means that may be devised for recovery; for with thine assistance the humblest instruments may succeed, as without it the ablest must prove unavailing.

Save me from all sordid motives, and endow me with a spirit of pity and liberality towards the poor; and with tenderness and sympathy towards all; that I may enter into the various feelings by which they

are respectively tried; may weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice.

And sanctify thou their souls, as well as heal their bodies. Let faith and patience, and every Christian virtue they are called upon to exercise, have their perfect work; so that in the gracious dealings of thy Spirit and of thy Providence, they may find in the end, whatever that end may be, that it has been good for them to have been afflicted.

Grant this, O Heavenly Father, for the love of that adorable Redeemer, who, while on earth, went about doing good, and now ever liveth to make intercession for us in Heaven. Amen!

This prayer illustrates to some extent the character of Dr. Good. It was his morning prayer to precede the duties of the day. It was printed by his request in his work after his death, for then no one could think that it was printed and published through any vanity on his part, or love for the good opinion of the world, but solely for the good example it might be to others. It was Dr. Good's distinction to have written the best medical work that had then appeared in the English language.

Surely the good that men do lives after them.

FIFTH: PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE

(Continued)

CHAPTER IX

MEDICINE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
(Concluded)

WE

E have followed the development of medicine through almost another century, from Stahl and van Helmont to Cullen and Good, seemingly a brief period, but marked by a succession of great men, great events, and of magnificent progress in science and discovery, The previous century was distinguished by men of inspiration, men with vague visions of the truth, like Stahl, de la Boë, and van Helmont; half-conceived ideas, ideas too grand for their vocabularies to frame, or to put into intelligible form; who made up with "brass mouths and iron lungs," like Brown of Edinburgh, for what they lacked in clearness of perspective. But contemporary with them were men less brilliant and pretentious, quiet workers, persevering, plodding men, who lie awake at night to follow new lines of invention and discovery, with no thought of reward or remuneration for their time and lost sleep, except the glory of achievement, or of advancing science