Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/94

82 into fleshy sockets in the upper. The weight of the largest about two pounds; no gristly substance in the mouth, commonly called whalebones; only two short fins. . . on the back; the eyes but small." This is a very good note, we think, and written in a scientific spirit.

He studied animal mechanism, especially the gaits of quadrupeds and the acts of swimming and floating; the problems of right and left handedness; and the erect figure of man. He tells us that "tempermental dignotions" can be detected by studying spots on the finger nails. Physicians even in our own day have not formulated knowledge on this curious subject. He discovered the animal soap now called adipocere. "He would have made a very extraordinary man for the Privy Council," we are told by his biographer.

A letter of advice to a young physician from Browne gives an estimate of the reading held to be essential to a medical course in his day. "Lay your foundation in anatomy." Among authors he recommends Vesalius, Spigelius, Bartholinus; and enjoins his friend to "master Dr. Harvey's piece, the Circulation of the Blood; also, to read with care and diligence Sennertus's Institutes. This done, to see how Institutes are applicable to practice." It must be remembered that in Browne's day "institutes" included physiology. This is all very modern in spirit.

What were the contents of a scientist's mind of the seventeenth century? The queries are taken from Sir Thomas's commonplace book. "Why little lap-dogs have a hole in their heads and often other little holes out of the place of the sutures?" "Why a pig's eyes drop out in roasting rather than other animals?" "Why a pig held up by the tail leaves squeaking?" "What is the use of dew claws in dogs?" "To make trial of this, whether live crawfish put into spirits of wine will presently turn red, as though they had been boiled, and taken out walk about in that color." Such an experiment reminds us of the famous distich of Peter Pindar.

Here is another modern touch! Browne remarks of one of his writings: "It is done by snatches of time, as medical vacations, and the fruitless importunity of uroscopy would permit us. And therefore also, perhaps it hath not found that regular and constant style, those infallible experiments, and those assured determinations, which the subject some time requireth, and might be expected of others, whose quiet doors and unmolested hours afford no such distractions." The "importunity of uroscopy" is