Life and mind on the basis of modern medicine (materialism) / by Robert Lewins; edited by W. Stewart Ross, after revision by the author.

Date:
[1894]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Life and mind on the basis of modern medicine (materialism) / by Robert Lewins; edited by W. Stewart Ross, after revision by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Moscow in 1812, being practically annihilated from casualties in battle and from disease. This was to the contemplative, yet adventurous, spirit of our author an experience singularly sinister, but, at the same time, exceptionally instructive. Dr. Lewins served in three other campaigns—in South Africa against the Caffres (Macomo, Sandili, &c), in New Zealand, against the Maories, and in North China, where, at the capture of the Taku Forts, he was surgeon in charge of the Hospital Ship Mauritius, to which all the worst—mostly incurable— cases of the Expeditionary Army were sent during the campaign in which Pekin was taken, and the Summer Palace burnt, in retaliation for the treacherous murder of English officers and Mr Bowlby, correspondent of the Times. In 1868 Dr. Lewins retired from the army with a pension for life. He had undergone his full share of dangers, priva- tions, and hardships, having served his country under her colours in the four quarters of the globe. He had gratified his natural bent, for which a civilian medical practice furnished no arena, and he had obtained a valuable and profoundly suggestive experience, dearly bought, it is true; but all ex- perience, to be really valuable, must be so. He possesses the Crimean medal, and four clasps, Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava,. and Sebastopol; as also the Turkish and China medals. Besides his extensive itinerary under the flag, Dr. Lewins has since his retirement from the army travelled widely, bring- ing to the scenes of his travels a mind singularly capable and enriched, and yet always plastic and receptive to further im- pression and educative influence. The Protagorean thesis he first excogitated when a young man with his regiment in India, he has adhered to, and elaborated ever since, finding in all subsequent experience and thought only further and further corroboration and support of his position. As often stated, Dr. Lewins finds the Brain Theory of the Universe one with Kant's negation of Thing in Itself, only based on the sure