Victorian Worthies

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Still more amusing are the stories which he tells of foreign visitors of
high station--of the Duke of Orleans playing truant without the
knowledge of his parents and being snubbed by his Grand Ducal
relatives; of Dal[=i]p Singh touring the provinces with a disreputable
entourage and trying to make trouble for the British at Moscow; of the
Prince of Montenegro and his beautiful daughters, whom Morier heartily
admires--'tall and massive, strong-limbed and comely, the true type of
the mothers of heroes in the Homeric sense'.

With the Court his relations were excellent. His intimacy with members
of our own royal family helped him, and his geniality and
unconventional, natural manner won favour with the Romanoffs, who
retained in their high station a great deal of simplicity. More than
once Morier seized an opportunity for an act of special courtesy to the
Tsar; and Alexander appreciated this from a man whose character was too
well known for him to be suspected of obsequiousness.

But the life in St. Petersburg was not all pleasure, even when
diplomatic waters were quiet. The work was hard, the climate was very
exacting with its extremes of temperature, and epidemics were rife. In
November 1889 he reports the appearance of 'Siberian Catarrh, more
usually described under the general name of Influenza', which was
working havoc in girls' schools and guardsmen's barracks, and had laid
low simultaneously Emperor, Empress, and half the imperial family.
Morier himself became increasingly liable to attacks of ill-health, and
found difficulty in discharging his duties regularly. It required a keen
sense of duty for him to stay at his post; and when in December 1891 he
was appointed to the Embassy at Rome, he was very willing to go. But
public interest stood in the way. He had made for himself an exceptional
place at St. Petersburg. No one could be found to replace him
adequately, and the Tsar expressed a desire that his departure should be
postponed. He consented to stay on, and the next two years of work in
that climate, together with the death in 1891 of his only son, broke
his spirit and his strength. Too late he went in search of health, first
to the Crimea and then to Switzerland. Death came to him as the winter
of 1893 was approaching, when he was at Montreux on the Lake of Geneva,
close to the home of his ancestors.

The impression which he made on his friends and colleagues is clear and
consistent, and the ignorance of the general public about men of his
profession justifies a few quotations. Sir Louis Mallet brackets him
with Sir James Hudson[45] and Lord Cromer as 'the most admirable trio of
public servants he had known'. Sir William White speaks of him and Odo
Russell as 'two giants of the diplomatic service'. Lord Acton, who knew
Europe as well as any Foreign Minister, and weighed his words, refers to
him in 1884 as 'our only strong diplomatist', and again 'as a strong
man, resolute, ready, well-informed and with some amount of real
resource'. More than one Foreign Secretary has borne testimony to the
value of Morier's dispatches; and Sir Charles Dilke, who, without
holding the portfolio himself, often shaped our foreign policy and was
an expert in European questions, is still more emphatic about his
intellectual powers, though he thinks that Morier's imperious temper
made him 'impossible in a small place'. Sir Horace Rumbold,[46] in his
_Recollections_, has many references to him, especially as he was in
earlier years. He speaks of Morier's 'prodigious fund of spirits that
made him the most entertaining, but not always the safest, of
companions'; 'of his imperious, not over-tolerant disposition'; 'of the
curious compound that he was of the thoughtless, thriftless Bohemian and
the cool, calculating man of the world'; of his 'exceptionally powerful
brain and unflagging industry'. Elsewhere he recalls Morier's journeys
among the Southern Slavs, in which he opened up a new field of
knowledge, and adds, 'since then he has made himself a thorough master
of German politics, and is, I believe, one of the few men whom Prince
Bismarck fears and correspondingly detests'.

[Note 45: Sir James Hudson, G.C.B., British minister at Turin during
the years of Cavour's great ministry; died 1885.]

[Note 46: Sir Horace Rumbold, G.C.B., Ambassador at Vienna
1896-1900; died 1913.]

Jowett's testimony may perhaps be discounted as that of an intimate
friend; yet he was no flatterer, and as he often criticized Morier
severely, it is of interest to read his deliberate verdict, given in
1873, that 'if he devoted his whole mind to it, he could prevent a war
in Europe'. Four years earlier Jowett had been told by a diplomatist
whom he respected, 'Morier is the first man in our profession'.

By those who still remember him, Morier is described as a diplomatist of
'the old school'. His noble presence, his courtly manner, and the
dignity which he observed on all ceremonial occasions, would have
qualified him to adorn the court of Maria Theresa or Louis Quatorze.
This dignity he could put off when the need for it was past. Among his
friends his manner was vivacious, his talk racy, his criticism free. He
was of the old school, too, in being self-confident and independent, and
in believing that he would do his best work if there were no telegraph
to bring frequent instructions from Whitehall. But he had not the
natural urbanity of Odo Russell, nor the invariable discretion of Lord
Lyons. He had hard work to discipline his imperious temper, and by no
means always succeeded in masking his own feelings. Perhaps too high a
value has been set on impenetrable reserve by those who have modelled
themselves on Talleyrand. By their very candour and openness some
British diplomatists have gained an advantage over rivals who confound
timidity with reserve, and have won a peculiar position of trust at
foreign courts. In dealing with de Giers, Morier at any rate found no
need to mumble or swallow his words. He was sure of himself and of his
honourable intentions. On one occasion, after reading to that minister
the exact words of the dispatch which he was sending to London, he
stated his policy to him categorically. 'I always went', he said, 'upon
the principle, whenever it could be done, of clearing the ground of all
possible misunderstandings at the earliest date.' Probably we shall
never see the end of 'secret diplomacy', whether under Tory, Liberal, or
Labour governments; but this is not the tone of one who loves secrecy
for its own sake.

In many ways Morier combined the qualities of the old and the new
schools. Though personally a favourite with kings and queens, he was
fully alive to the changes in the Europe of the nineteenth century,
where, along with courts and cabinets, other more unruly forces were at
work. His visit to Paris in 1848 showed his early interest in popular
movements, and he maintained a catholic width of view in later life. He
knew men of all sorts and kept himself acquainted with unofficial
currents of opinion. He could talk freely to journalists or to
merchants, could put them at their ease and get the information which he
wanted. His comprehensiveness was remarkable. The strife of politicians
in the foreground did not blur the distant landscape. In Russia, behind
Balkan intrigues and Black Sea troubles he could see the cloud of danger
overhanging the Pamirs. In Spain or Portugal he was watching and
forecasting the possibilities of the white races in Africa. So his
dispatches, varied and vivacious as they were, proved of the greatest
value to Foreign Secretaries at home, and furnish excellent reading
to-day.

In these dispatches a few Gallicisms occur; and in writing to an old
friend like Sir William White he uses a free mixture of French and
English with other ingredients for seasoning. But in general the
literary style is admirable. He has a rare command of language, a most
inventive use of metaphor, a felicitous touch in sketching a character
or an incident. Towards those working under him he was exacting, setting
up a high standard of industry, but he was generous in his praise and
very ready to take up the cudgels for them when they needed support. In
commending one of them, he selects for special praise 'his old-fashioned
conscientiousness about public work and his subordination of private
comfort'. He inherited this tradition from his own family and his
faithfulness to it cost him his life.

Above all, we feel in reading these letters and memoranda that here is a
man whose aim is truth rather than effect--not thinking of commending a
programme to thousands of half-informed readers or hearers, in order to
win their votes, but giving counsel to his peers, Odo Russell or Sir
William White, Lord Granville or Lord Salisbury, on events and
tendencies which affect the grave issues of peace and war and the lives
of thousands of his fellow-countrymen. This generation has learnt how
unsafe it is to treat these in a parliamentary atmosphere where men
force themselves to believe what they wish and close their eyes to what
is uncomfortable. While human nature remains the same, democracy cannot
afford to deprive itself of such counsel or to belittle such a
profession.

JOSEPH LISTER

1827-1912

1827. Born at West Ham, April 5.
1844-52. University College, London.
1851. Acting House Surgeon under Erichsen.
1852. First research work published.
1853. Goes to Edinburgh. House Surgeon under Syme.
1855. Assistant Surgeon and Lecturer at Edinburgh Infirmary.
1856. Marries Agnes Syme.
1860. Appointed Professor of Clinical Surgery at Glasgow.
1865. Makes acquaintance with Pasteur's work.
1866-7. Antiseptic treatment of compound fractures and abscesses.
1867. Papers on antiseptic method in the _Lancet_.
1869. Appointed Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh.
1872-5. Conversion of leading scientists in Germany to Antisepticism.
1875. Lister's triumphal reception in Germany.
1877. Accepts professorship at King's College, London.
1879. Medical congress at Amsterdam. Acceptance of Lister's
methods by Paget and others in London.
1882. von Bergmann develops Asepticism in Berlin.
1883. Lister created a Baronet.
1891. British Institute of Preventive Medicine incorporated.
1892. Lister attends Pasteur celebration in Paris.
1893. Death of Lady Lister.
1895-1900. President of Royal Society.
1897. Created a Peer.
1902. Order of Merit.
1907. Freedom of City of London: last public appearance.
1912. Dies at Walmer, February 10.

JOSEPH LISTER

SURGEON

In a corner of the north transept of Westminster Abbey, almost lost
among the colossal statues of our prime ministers, our judges, and our
soldiers, will be found a small group of memorials preserving the
illustrious names of Darwin, Lister, Stokes, Adams, and Watt, and
reminding us of the great place which Science has taken in the progress
of the last century. Watt, thanks partly to his successors, may be said
to have changed the face of this earth more than any other inhabitant of
our isles; but he is of the eighteenth century, and between those who
developed his inventions it is not easy to choose a single
representative of the age. Stokes and Adams command the admiration of
all students of mathematics who can appreciate their genius, but their
work makes little appeal to the average man. In Darwin's case no one
would dispute his claim to represent worthily the scientists of the age,
and his life is a noble object for study, single-hearted as he was in
his devotion to truth, persistent as were his efforts in the face of
prolonged ill-health. No better instance could be found to show that the
highest intellectual genius may be found united with the most endearing
qualities of character. Kindly and genial in his home, warmly attached
to his friends, devoid of all jealousy of his fellow scientists, he
lived to see his name honoured throughout the civilized world; and many
who are incapable of appreciating his originality of mind can find an
inspiring example in the record of his life. There is no need to make
comparisons either of fame, of mental power, or of character; but the
choice of Lister may be justified by the fact that his science, the
science of Health and Disease, is one of absorbing interest to all men,
and that with his career is bound up the history of a movement fraught
with grave issues of life and death from which few families have been
exempt.

About these issues bitter controversies have raged; but it is to the
lesser men that the bitterness is due. By his family traditions, as well
as by his natural disposition, Lister was a man of peace; and though he
left the Society of Friends at the time of his marriage, he retained a
respect for their views which accorded well with his own nature. When
he had to speak or write on behalf of what he believed to be the truth,
it was from no motive of self-assertion or combativeness. He had the
calm contemplative mind of the student, whereas Bright, the Quaker
tribune, the champion of Repeal, had all the fervour of the man of
action. Lister's family had been Quakers since the beginning of the
eighteenth century; and at this time too they moved from Yorkshire to
London, where his grandfather and father were engaged in business as
wine merchants. But Joseph Jackson Lister, who married in 1818, and
became in 1827 the father of the famous surgeon, was much more than a
merchant. He had taught himself the science of optics, had made
improvements in the microscope, and had won his way within the sacred
portals of the Royal Society. Letters have been preserved which show us
how keen his interest in science always remained, and with what full
appreciation he entered into the researches which his son was making as
professor at Glasgow in the middle of the century. A father like this
was not likely to grudge money on the boy's education; but for the
Friends many avenues to knowledge were still closed, including the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He had to be content to go
successively to Quaker schools at Hitchin and Tottenham, and from the
latter to proceed, at the age of seventeen, to University College,
London, which was non-sectarian. There the teaching was good, the
atmosphere favourable to industry, and Lister was not conscious of
hardship in missing the delights of youth that fell to his more
fortunate contemporaries.

His father lived in a comfortable house at Upton, some six miles east of
London Bridge, in a district now completely swamped by the growth of the
vast borough of West Ham. He kept up close relations with other Quaker
families living in the neighbourhood, especially the Gurneys of
Plashets. In their circle the most striking figure was Elizabeth Fry,
who from 1813 to her death in 1843 devoted herself unsparingly to the
cause of prison reform. From his home the father continued to exercise a
strong influence over his son, who was industrious and serious beyond
his years.

From his father Lister learned as a boy to delight in the use of the
microscope. He learned also to use his own power of observation, and to
make hand and eye work together to minister to his studies. The power of
drawing, which the future surgeon thus early developed, stood him in
good stead later in life; and it is interesting to contrast his
enjoyment of it with the laments made by his great contemporary Darwin,
who felt keenly what he lost through his inability to use a pencil and
to preserve the record of what he saw in nature or in the laboratory.
Lister's school-days were over when he was seventeen years old and there
is nothing remarkable to tell of them; but his period at University
College was unusually prolonged. He was a student there for seven years
and continued an eighth year, after he had taken his degree, as Acting
House Surgeon. In 1848, half-way through his time, a physical breakdown
was brought on by overwork, just as he was finishing his general
studies; but a long holiday enabled him to recover his strength, and
before the end of the year he had begun the course of medical studies
which was to be his life-work.

At school his record had been good but not brilliant, nor did he come
quickly to the front in London. His mind was not of the sort which can
be forced to produce untimely fruit in the hot-house of examinations.
But his education was both extensive and thorough; it formed an
excellent general training for the mind and a good basis for the special
studies in which he was later to distinguish himself. He had been at
University College for two years before he gained his first medal; but
by 1850 he had made his name as the best man of his year, capable of
upholding the credit of his College against any rival in the
metropolis. Among his fellow students the best known in later years was
Sir Henry Thompson, whose portrait by Millais hangs in our National
Gallery. Among his professors one stands out pre-eminent, alike for his
character and for his influence on Lister's life. This was William
Sharpey, Professor of Physiology, an original man with a keen eye for
originality in others. In days when most English professors were content
with a narrow empirical training, he had trudged with his knapsack over
half Europe in quest of knowledge, had studied in France, Switzerland,
Italy, and Austria, and had made himself acquainted at first hand with
the best that was taught in their schools. He was a first-rate lecturer,
clear and simple, and took much pains to get to know his pupils. When
Lister had held for a short time the post of Acting House Surgeon at
University College Hospital, and needed to make definite plans for his
career, it was Sharpey who advised him to go north for a while and
attend some classes in Edinburgh before deciding on his course. Thus it
was Sharpey who introduced him to Scotland and to Syme.

Before we speak of the latter, a few words must be given to the year
1851, when Lister completed his studentship and became for a time an
active member of the hospital staff. This year was important as
introducing him to the practice of his art under the direction of
Erichsen, an Anglo-Dane and one of the foremost surgeons in London. It
also led to a change in his way of living, to his being thrown into
closer relations with men of his own age, and to his taking a more
lively part in social gatherings. What we hear of the essays that he
wrote at school, what we can read of his early letters, all harmonizes
with our conception of a Quaker upbringing. There is a staid primness
about him, which contrasts strangely with the pictures of medical
students presented to us in the pages of Dickens. Capable though he was
of enjoying a holiday, or of expanding among congenial associates,
Lister was not quick to make friends. He was apt to keep too much to
himself; and he seems to have inspired respect and even a certain awe
among men of his own age. In his youth men noticed the same grave mien,
steadfast eyes, and lofty intellectual forehead which are conspicuous in
his later portraits. He was steady in conduct, serious in manner,
precise in his way of expressing himself; and while these qualities
helped him in the mental application which was so necessary if he was to
profit by his student days, he needed a little shaking up in order to
adapt himself to the ways of other men in the sphere of active life.
This was given him by the constant activities of the hospital, and by
the demands which the various societies made upon him; but he did not
allow them to interfere with his own researches, for which he could find
time when others were overwhelmed by the routine of their daily tasks.

His first bit of original research is of special interest because it
connects him with his father's work. He made special observations with
the microscope of the muscular tissue of the iris of the eye,
illustrated his paper by delicate drawings of his own, and published it
in the leading microscopical journal. This and a subsequent paper on the
phenomena of 'Goose-skin' attracted some attention among physiologists
at home and abroad, and brought him into friendly relations with a
German professor of world-wide reputation. They also gave great
satisfaction to his father and to his favourite teacher Sharpey.

But Lister's development henceforth was to take place on Scottish
ground, and his visit to Edinburgh in 1853 shaped the whole course of
his career. James Syme, under whose influence he thus came, was the most
original and brilliant surgeon then living in the British Isles, perhaps
in all Europe. His merits as a lecturer were somewhat overshadowed by
his extraordinary skill as an operator; but he was a remarkable man in
all ways, and the fact that Lister was admitted, first to his
lecture-room and operating theatre, and then to his home, was without
doubt the happiest accident in his life.

The atmosphere of Edinburgh with its large enthusiastic classes in the
hospitals, its cultivated and intellectual society outside, supplied
just what was wanted to foster the genius of a young man on the
threshold of his career. In London, centres of culture were too widely
diffused, indifference and apathy too prevalent, conservatism in
principles and methods too strongly entrenched. In his new home in the
north Lister could watch the boldest operator in his own profession, and
could daily meet men scarcely less distinguished in other sciences, and
as a visitor to Syme's house he was from time to time thrown among able
men following widely different lines in life. Above all, here he met one
who was peculiarly qualified to be his helper; and three years later, at
the age of twenty-nine, he was married to Agnes Syme, the daughter of
his chief, to whom he had been attracted, as can be seen from the
letters which passed between Edinburgh and Upton, soon after his arrival
in the north. Before this event, he had already made his mark as
Resident House Surgeon, as assistant operator to Syme, and also as an
independent lecturer under the liberal system which gave an opening to
all who could establish by merit a claim to be heard. He had also begun
those researches into the early stages of inflammation which, ten years
later, were to bear such wonderful fruit. It was a full and busy life,
and the distraction of courtship must have made it impossible for him at
times to meet all demands; but after 1856 his mind was set at rest and
his strength doubled by the sympathy which his wife showed in his work,
and by the help which she was able to render him in writing to his
dictation.

For their honeymoon they took a long journey on the Continent in the
summer of 1856; but half, even of this rare holiday, was given to
science, and, after some weeks' enjoyment of the beauties of Italy,
husband and wife made the tour of German universities, as he was
desirous to see something, if possible, of the leading surgeons and the
newest methods. Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Frankfort, Heidelberg,
and Stuttgart were all included in the tour. They were well received,
and at Vienna the most eminent professor of Pathology in the University
gave more than three hours of his time to showing his museum to Lister,
and also invited the young couple to dine at his house. Though he had
not yet made a name for himself, Lister's earnestness and intelligence
always made a favourable impression; and as he had taken pains with
foreign languages in his youth, he was able, now and later in life, to
address French and German friends, and even public meetings, in their
native tongue. He came back to find work waiting for him which would tax
his energies to the full. In October 1856 he was elected Assistant
Surgeon to the Infirmary, and now, in addition to lecturing, he had to
conduct public operations himself, whereas he had hitherto only acted as
Syme's assistant. This was at first a severe trial for his nerves. That
it affected him differently from most experienced surgeons is shown by
the fact that he used always, all his life, to perspire freely when
starting to operate; but he learnt to overcome this nervousness by
concentrating his attention on his work. He was not a man who had
religious phrases on his lips; but in letters to his family, quoted by
Sir Rickman Godlee, he gives us the secret of his confidence and his
power. 'Yesterday', he says in a letter written to his father on
February 26, 'I made my debut at the hospital in operating before the
students. I felt very nervous before beginning; but when I had got
fairly to work, this feeling went off entirely, and I performed both
operations with entire comfort.' A week later, in a letter to his
sister, he returns to the subject. 'The theatre was again well filled;
and though I again felt a good deal before the operation, yet I lost all
consciousness of the presence of the spectators during its performance,
and did it exactly as if no one had been looking on. Just before the
operation began I recollected that there was only one Spectator whom it
was important to consider, one present alike in the operating theatre
and in the private room; and this consideration gave me increased
firmness.' Interest in the work for its own sake, forgetfulness of
himself, these were to be the key-notes of his life-work.

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