Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/364

348 he was also capable of uttering bitter and sarcastic words. His conversation always inspired active thought.

Yet, with all the pleasantness of this social intercourse, his strict self-restraint, the strongest quality of his nature, was always manifest, and this was one of the principal causes of the excellent influence he exercised over young people; they had in him the example of a man who was scrupulously strict with himself, and absolutely conscientious. "Ludwig was also our professor of ethics," one of his American pupils recently remarked to me. And thus Ludwig's life has amply proved that the best and highest that a teacher can give to youth lies in the power of his own personality.

Ludwig's coming and the erection of the Physiological Institute caused a revival of theoretical instruction in our faculty. Two years later the arrival of Thiersch was followed by great changes in clinical instruction. Clinics have only existed in Leipsic since 1798. Up to that time the faculty had professors of pathology and surgery; learned men, who, however, gave no hospital instruction. Even when by the courtesy of the magistrate, and especially through the efforts of the excellent burgomaster Mūller, the City Hospital had been opened for clinical instruction, the clinical teachers for a long time had only a subordinate position in the faculty. Only later, in 1812, the professor of clinical medicine (A. Clarus), and in 1824 the demonstrator of surgery (Kuhl) were received into the faculty as full professors.

A report of the faculty of the year 1838, written in Weber's clear handwriting, gives the key to a true understanding of these curious conditions. The Jacob's Hospital, in which the clinic was held, was then, as now, a city institution, the doctor and surgeon of which were appointed by the magistrate, and only later on were confirmed by the government. The first was appointed clinical professor, the latter surgical demonstrator. The financial support from the government was limited to four hundred thalers as a salary for the clinical professor, and one hundred thalers as a salary for the demonstrator of surgery.

The expenses of the hospital fell entirely on the city, the natural result being that the admission of patients was carried on without any reference to instruction.

The above-mentioned report complains bitterly of the existing conditions, and dwells on the fact that the sick-beds were almost entirely taken up by cases of chronic disease, which were practically useless for purposes of instruction. How curious it is now to hear that in 1838 the want of surgical cases was explained by the smallness of Leipsic and the "comparative wealth of the laboring classes"! The surgical demonstrator was subordinate to the clinical professor,