Hinton and Henderson, or, The story of two doctors, English and Scotch / by the Rev. Canon Vaughan.

  • Vaughan, John.
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinton and Henderson, or, The story of two doctors, English and Scotch / by the Rev. Canon Vaughan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    784 E . b GOOD WORDS. of large extent. In the earthquakes of Calabria and Lisbon, the former occurring in 1782 and the latter in 1755, the effects of depression were seen, especially in the latter instance. If sudden changes of the land- surface are the result of earthquakes, it may be considered to be a natural inference that the slow land-movements we have been con- sidering are very nearly related, as far as regards their cause and origin, to the forces which produce the earthquake. All geolo- gists agree that the force which in a moment may devastate an area of immense extent, is, in reality, allied to that which operates in the slow and gradual land-movements we have been detailing. The earthquake-force is again associated very intimately with volcanic action, and this latter has been ascertained to arise from the sudden con- version of a large body of water—escaping through fissures injxc-th&interior of the globe —into steam, tlypu^lTbqming'in contact with heated and molten n«rferial. \Thus earth- quakes, vojcanic j^trptions, and ordinary land-movements, yfeSeen to be associated in the closest possible fashion, Ad they are further asc\tained to originate; indirectly or directly, as tlmvcase mayJjefTrom those fire- forces which are stilToperating in the interior of our globe. That this world of ours stands midway between the dead moon and the brilliant sun as a rapidly cooling orb, is a fact well known to most readers. The idea that the internal fire-forces of our globe still play an important part in its history, and in that of its living tenants, is not so widely known; but it is, at the same time, a thought which carries with it much that is both suggestive and strange. ANDREW WILSON. HINTON AND ©r, the <§torj) of ttuo By the Rev. CA1 'W'OTJNG people of an ambitious or as- piring turn seem never to get tired of Longfellow’s often-quoted lines :— “ Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; “ Footprints which perchance another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main; A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, may take heart again.” The lines come to one’s recollection natur- ally enough, as one thinks of the two men whom the following pages are designed to commemorate. And yet they cannot be called great men, at least in that sense of greatness which implies power and capacities far above the level of ordinary men. Their greatness lies entirely in the direction of goodness;—moral, not intellectual,—resting on will and character, not on gifts or talents. The story of their lives shall first be very briefly told ; and then the meaning and lesson of the lives will at once disclose them- selves. I put the two men together, not because they had very much in common beyond their profession—their characters and careers and tastes being, indeed, as different HENDERSON; tors, (English anb <Scotdi.* NON VAUGHAN. as they could well be—but because, somehow or other, the one seems to recall or suggest the other, the life of each being marked by a rugged simplicity, manliness, and determina- tion which conquered all difficulties, and gave a peculiar quality and charm to the goodness, which might almost be called the greatness, of each. James Henderson was born in 1829, and died at Nagasaki, in Japan, in 1865, at the early age of thirty-five ; and James Hinton was born in 1822, and died at St. Michael’s, in Madeira, in 1875, at the age of fifty-three. Dr. Henderson was not a writer ; the few years of his mature life being devoted to practical work as a medical missionary at Shanghai, in China. The only thing that we have from his pen is a little sketch of his own early life, which forms the first chapter of his “ Memorials.” Dr. Hinton, on the other hand, was a considerable author, both on subjects connected with his profession, and on others of a more popular kind. His work entitled, “ Questions of Aural Surgery,” and his “Atlas of Diseases of the Membrana Tympani” are still text-books for the treat- ment of diseases of the ear. In addition to these strictly professional works, he was the writer of a number of comparatively popular books, such as “ Life in Nature,” “ Thoughts on Health, and some of its Conditions,” “ Man and his Dwelling-place,” and, more * “ Memorials of James Henderson, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh; Vice-President of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; Medical Missionary to China.” (Eighth edition.) James Nisbet & Co. 1878. “ Life and Letters of James Hinton.” Edited by Ellice Hopkins, with an Introduction by Sir W. W. Gull. C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1878.