Page:A Memoir of Thomas C. James, M. D. - Hodge.djvu/11

 the situation of professor, he was well and advantageously known to the full classes which annually resorted to the University of Pennsylvania. In him, they beheld the accomplished obstetrician, one whose mild, sociable yet dignified deportment, not only gained their respect but their affection, who not only secured for himself attention and confidence but for his science, the devotion and interest which it so richly deserved.

As a lecturer, it is not pretended that Dr. James was perfect; the critic might say that from the native peculiarities of his character, especially from that modesty and self-diffidence, that respect to the opinions of others, even of mere tyros in their profession, he wanted that boldness and decision, that spirit and enthusiasm, that air of originality and self-confidence so interesting and impressive in a teacher, so calculated to fix attention and impart instruction. Nevertheless he was an excellent teacher. His lectures were handsomely and classically written; they were copious, abounding in matter, rich in illustrations, and indicating a mind of a superior cast, well cultivated and enriched with literary, as well as scientific attractions. If he wanted originality, he was well versed in the opinions and discoveries of others; if he was deficient in spirit and boldness, his compositions evinced great taste, much reading and laborious attention to his subject, so that every lecture was a full and satisfactory essay on the subject, treated with suitable references to acknowledged authorities. His delivery, it may be inferred, was not very impassioned; he wanted more energy, and more vigour in his voice and composition, yet he was always interesting from the mild dignity of his appearance and manners, and from the good sense and superior mental and moral character which marked the man and his productions.

Hence he was a successful teacher. This is not the proper occasion to analyze the doctrines which he taught, or to examine the medical and chirurgical treatment which he recommended in the practice of obstetrics. Suffice it to say, that receiving his early impressions from distinguished English teachers, his views were founded mainly on British obstetrics. He examined, however, the productions of the French and other continental schools, followed their writers into that scientific detail, and those minute instructions regarding the mechanism of labour and the treatment of parturition therewith necessarily connected, which has distinguished the French obstetrician, and so elevated the science of tokology. Profiting by all this accurate information, Dr. James still in his teaching