When Mr. Abernethy was appointed _surgeon_ to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in 1815, he had already been twenty-eight years assistant surgeon, and was therefore fifty years of age before he had an opportunity of taking an active share in the practical administration of the Hospital. This is one of the many effects of a System of which we shall presently give a sketch. He was thus invested with the additional duties of Surgeon of the Hospital, and Professor to the College of Surgeons, at a time of life when most people, who have commenced young and laboured hard with their intellects, as distinguished from their hands, begin to feel their work. This was the case with Abernethy. We do not think that his original physical organization was to be complained of; he had been active and energetic, he was of moderate stature and well-proportioned; a magnificently poised brain, judging phrenologically; and, in short (under favourable circumstances), he appeared to have had the elements of long life; but we think that his organization—and especially the presiding power, the nervous system—was ill-adapted either for the air, the anxieties, or the habits of a crowded city; or the somewhat pestilential atmosphere of a dissecting-room. We saw him, therefore, ageing at fifty very sensibly, and rather more than is in general observable at that period. He complained, in 1817, of the fatigue of the College lectures, coming, as they did, on the completion of a season of the "mill-round" of hospital tuition and practice. So that, when we mentioned the period of his lectures at the College as on so many accounts the zenith of his career, there was the serious drawback arising from a certain diminution of strength which had never been, at best, equal to the _physical_ fatigue of his multiform avocations. All this arose partly out of a System, which, although, like all evils, not allowed to proceed without being charged with elements of remotely prospective correction, has been the parent of much mischief. This is what we have called the "Hospital System," some of the more important features of which we will now present to our readers. [Footnote 74: This gentleman, who retired some years since from practice, died at Norwood, about a month ago, at the age of 73. Dr. Barnett was born at Malmesbury, and was an early pupil of Abernethy's, and a friend of Dr. Jenner's; he practised many years as a general practitioner in Charter-House Square, where he realized, we believe, a comfortable competency. He was distinguished by a singularly mild, gentlemanly, and inoffensive bearing, not less than by the confidence reposed in his skill and judgment by a large list of patients and friends.] CHAPTER XXVIII. THE HOSPITAL SYSTEM. "——Non hæc sine numine Divum Eveniunt." ÆNEID, lib. ii, 1. 777. If we would view any human institution dispassionately, we must distinguish the vices of System from the faults of those who administer it.