Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 60.djvu/570

 liked thus to show his sympathy, and among his scientific friends he used to say that above all he dearly loved to chat with the physio- logists.

It is somewhat difficult for one like the present writer, who only knew Sir George during tlhe last ten years or so of his life, to guess who among his earlier friends had most to do with the formation of his character. Sir George had obviously a strong character of his own, which would have brought him to the front in any walk of life; but to judge by his conversation on the reminiscences of his younger days, it would seem that above all others, Dr. Todd was the one who especially stimulated him in the particular branches he took пp. At the time that he was student, Dr. Todd was Professor of Physiology at King's College, and throughout the whole of his subsequent life, Johnson was as diligent a student of physiology as he was of medicine. He knew, in a most surprising way, the contents of modern physiological text-books, especially in relation to the circula- tion of the blood, his favourite study; and, to show the vigour of his mind, he was intensely interested towards the last in the question of Osmotic pressure, a difficult subject which has only recently attained importance to physiologists. He was, however, not merely a student of books, but was practical to the backbone; after the establishment of the physiological laboratory at King's College, during the time Pro- fessor Rutherford occupied the chair of physiology, he was a frequent visitor there, and much important work was done at his suggestion then and subsequently. He was an accomplished histologist, and took a keen delight in showing to his friends the specimens by which he believed he had refnted the views of those who disagreed with him. Even in the last week of his life he had commenced experi ments on the action of the cilia in the renal tubules of the newt's kidney.

In mentioning his early friends, one must not omit to enumerate Sir Thomas Watson, whom he helped with his celebrated lectures; Sir William Ferguson, Sir William Bowman, and Dr. Bristowe, all of whom Sir George Johnson survived.

The controversies of his life were numerous; there were stormy times at King's College, especially in years now far back; there was the great cholera controversy: in the first years of this, Johnson was most unfairly treated, being branded almost as a quack in the medical journals. He, however, in spite of loss of practice, stuck to his views, and had, in the end of his days, the sati faction of seeing his evacnant treatment of cholera regarded as a rational one, and in many cases recognised by eminent practitioners as the correct one. Of his sobriquets, Johnson preferred to be known as "Cholera John- son"rather than "Kidney Johison." His views on the kidney question were direct dednctions from physiological knowledge derived