LONDON.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1887, 13 April 1892, Page 6

LONDON.

(From the Dunedin ♦ Evening Star's' London Correspondent.)

London, February 12. MOBELL MACKENZIE.

The late Sir Morell Mackenzie was a very busy man who yet managed to get a fair amount of enjoyment ont of life. For a long time past his income exceeded L 15,000 a year. When patients could pay he made them do so "through the nose," as the saying is, but his charities were large and unostentatious. The cases of poor governesses, actors, vocalists (obscure persons with no claim on him but suffering) were attended gratis, the doctor frequently providing them with wine and medicines also. Sir Morell was, besides being a enthusiastic theatre goer, very fond of the river, and a capital hand with a pair of sculls. He went into society a bit in the season, but never allowed that or anything else to interfere with work. Nine to ten in the morning the doctor paid urgent visits. From ten to one he saw patients at home in a pentagon consulting room specially constructed, and so pigeonholed with dressing rooms that he could take four patients almost simultaneously. A medical friend of his, reminiscing, says : —

On the whole, however, be was singularly successful in his practice, managing his patients, as well as their diseases, with the greatest tact and resourcefulness. He altogether despised convention in the matter of what may be called consulting-room etiquette, and often received his patients in a suit of "dittoes" or in a velveteen jacket. While doing his work efficiently, tie wasted no time, as a rule, over his patients, and would never, if he could help it, allow himself to be drawn by then) into a discussion of their case or its treatment. He looked at their throats, applied the remedy at the same time, enjoining strict silence for some time afterwards, gave the necessary instructions In the fewest words, spoken with a peculiar jerky staccato utterance, and, piloting them firmly but with perfect courtesy towards the door, delivered them over to the attendant Cerberus, who was always waiting outside ready to escort them out of the house. In this way Mackenzie would often in the season, which was his busiest time, "work off" as many as sixty or seventy patients in a forenoon, besides dictating letters iv stolen moments, seeing medical celebrities from abroad, and getting rid of the legions of touts for wholesale druggists, wine merchants, etc., with which every great doctor's I house is infested. Morell Mackenzie had already acquired a large practice at a time of life Trhen few physicians have the opportunity of taking a guinea from a patient. His early success is easily explained by the fact that he was one of the firat doctors In England who learned to use the laryngoscope ; and for several years he had the field to himself without a seiious rival. Before Manuel Garcia showed how the Inside of the human larynx could be seen with the little mirror, the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of that organ was the merest groping in the dark. Mackenzie, who had studied at Festh under Czermak, who may be called the scientific apostle of the laryngoscope, was able to effect some startling cures, which made a deep impression on men like Sir William Fergusson, who were the recognised heads of the medical profession at the time. In particular, his splendid record of 100 cases of growths of the larynx removed through the mouth without cutting the neck, published some twenty years ago, placed him on a pinnacle of fame as an operator from which he has never since been dislodged. Thenceforward patients came to him literally from the ends of the earth, a particularly large contingent coming from the United States, where he was probably better known than any other English physician. THE LATE " J.K.S." The scene was a Cambridge wine party. Men were speaking of the advantages of faith and innocence, and a sentimental undergraduate quoted Wordsworth's Heaven lies about us in our infancy. "Yes," retored a well-known voice," but that is no reason why wo should be about Heaven in our old age, The speaker was the brilliant "J.K.S." (J. K. Stephen), whose death at the early age of thirty-three has just left an aching void in many young and old hearts. Poor J.E. ! He was one of the cleverest men of bis time, but eccentric to the verge of craziness. The son of a judge and nephew of a philosophical writer, much was early expected from John Stephen. At Eton the lad more than justified family hopes. At Cambridge he was universally admitted to be the smartest man at the 'Varsity. He took excellent degrees, but it was more lib a talker and debater that J.E. principally shone. He held the union spell-bound for an hour at a time. He spoke to the most different audiences, suiting his wit, his arguments, his eloquence to each. " Perhaps," writes one who knew J.K. well, "his most remarkable gift was that which he shared with Edmund Burke— the power of materialising the impalpable, of solidifying by carefully chosen phrases a sentiment or a prejudice into an argument until it seemed more cogent than the strongest reason. I have heard him, more than once, utter 'a string of sentences which I believe no living orator could equal in sonorous diction, in happily chosen phraseology, in stringent argument — others might never be at loss for a word, he never lacked the word." After leaving Cambridge J.K.S. came to London and started. The * Reflector,' which existed only to be epigrammatic. It had much of the ' National Observer's ' fervor and independenoe without the ttenleyan acridity, but was otherwise run on impossible principles . the ' Reflector ' lasted a few months only. Mr Stephen at this time spoke frequently at metropolitan debating societies. His resolutions were peculiar, For example: "That while this House thinks Mr Gladstone a great and a good man, it thinks Mr Balfour a greater and a better"; or " That while this House likes Home Rule very well, ifc likes coercion better." In April, 1891, * Lapsus Calami ' was published, and sold well amongst the elect, Stephen, without doubt, is Calverley's most successful disciple. He would deserve to be remembered if only for that delightful couplet —

Where the Rudyards cease from Kipling, And the Haggards ride no more. But ' Lapsus Calami' contains many other titbits. 'The Ballade of the Incompetent Ballade-monger,' • A Drinking Song,' and ' Some Verses on Browning's " Last Ride," from the Girl's Point of View,' are specially good. I will, by way of finale, quote you two eminently, characteristic veraes of poor J.K.S.'s, called 'Philosopher and Philanthropist ' — Searching an infinite Where, Probincf a bottomless When, Dreaming:, wandering Ceaselessly pondering What is the Wherefore of men ; Bartering life for a There, Selling his soul for a Then, Baffling obscurity, Conning futurity, Usefulest, wisest of men. Grasping the Present of life, Seizing a definite Now, Laboring thornf ully, Banishing scornfully Doubts of his Whither and How ; Spending his substance in strife, Working a practical How, Letting obscurity Best on futurity, Uaefulcr, wiser, I trow.

Only the other day Messra Macmillan published a new and cheaper edition of 'Lapsus Calami, 9 at 2s 6d. Mr Stephen intended entering the House at the General Election.

" WILFRED MURRAY."

Sufficient time having been allowed Mr Hurlbort to find Wilfred Murray, a warrant has been taken out against him for perjury, and his arrest and extradition have been determined on. Nevertheless, it will surprise me if bis case ever comes to trial,