A DOCTOR’S GREAT TALENTS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 23

A DOCTOR’S GREAT TALENTS

A Full Life Recorded In Reminiscence ‘■Those Were Good Days!" Reminiscences by Carl Ludwig Schleich, translated by Bernard Miall. (London: Allen and Unwin). This autobiography was first published in Germany in 1920, and is now in its 365,000th' in the original. Its publication in -English comes 13 years after the author's death. An epilogue has been added by Herr Wolfgang Goetz, apparently for the benefit of English readers, for it not written till 1935. The reason of the-epilogue, Herr Goetz tells us, is that in the description of his life Carl Ludwig Schleich has written but little of himself; so Herr Goetz supplies an admirable pen portrait of his versatile compatriot. Most readers, however, will feel that the autobiography is indeed quite adequate.

Carl Ludwig Schleich, born in Stettin in 1559, possessed remarkable talents. He was the son of a doctor who was determined that his son should be a doctor also, but fame beckoned to the young man along divers paths. He had a glorious tenor voice and could probably have become famous in opera; poetry and literature never ceased to have vital interest fot him. and he was a painter of no mean talent. However, his father so insisted upon a medical career that he became a surgeon and devoted many years of his life to medical research, making discoveries which are only now coming to their fullest fruition. It was in fact not until after his fathers death that he turned his thoughts seriously to the poetry and philosophy for which he is remembered more generally than for his revolutionary discoveries in medicine.

The happy days of childhood are delightfully told. Then followed student days, spent so often in such wild carousal that it is possible that the dissolute reputation he gained then is in some measure responsible for the lack of recognition accorded his most brilliant efforts.

By his temperament Carl Ludwig Schleich was unable to do anything in moderation. lie studied medicine, wrote, sang, painted, played the ’cello with feverish energy. He rode the crest of the wave intoxicated with success or sank in the depths of despair. It was truly said that his biography might as easily have been called “Those were Bad Days.” Yet he has left an amazing legacy of discoveries to humanity.

Much of “These Were Good Days” has a somewhat aggrieved tone, for the author was subject to an unforgettable insult at the hands of the Surgical Congress. On the reading of his first paper on local anaesthesia before some 800 surgeons in Berlin, he was shown the door and denied the opportunity to convince his listeners. And, although his theory was shortly accepted by all who had scoffed at him, no word of expiation was ever accorded him. The iron entered his soul as he struggled miserably for the recognition and success he felt to be his due, and he has many bitter things to say of the medical brotherhood. Schleich knew most of the eminent Germans of his time intimately, and devotes chapters to Strindberg (who was not German). Virchow, Paul Ehrlich and Richard Dchmel. “Those Were Good Days” suggests Hie scaring energy of the author. It has much pleasant anecdote and many explanations of scientific methods and theories, all sufficiently non-technical for the layman. It is as if the author is seeking recognition by appealing to a wider audience, a vast unscientific, unprejudiced audience, I lie general public. Tli<' most charming feature ol fne hook is Ihe author’s unfailing allegiance to his father.