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BROWN, JOHN, M. D. founder
of what is termed the Brunonian system in medicine, and one of the most
eccentric and extraordinary men of his time, was a native of the parish of
Bunkle, in Berwickshire, where he was born, in the year 1735, or, as
others assert, in 1737. Though only the son of a day-labourer, he
contrived to obtain an excellent classical education at the school of
Dunse, which was then taught by Mr William Cruickshank, one of the most
celebrated teachers that Scotland has produced. The genius and application
of Brown were alike so great, that, at an age when the most of children
are only beginning their letters, he was far advanced in a knowledge of
Latin. His studies, after some time, were broken off in consequence of the
inability of his father to maintain him at school He was bound apprentice
to the gloomy and monotonous craft of a weaver, which must have been
peculiarly unsuitable to his lively faculties. However, he seems to have
afterwards been enabled by the kindness of his teacher to renew his
studies; and it is known that for this purpose he had employed himself on
the harveswield. His proficiency in the Latin recommended him, first to
the situation of usher in the school, and afterwards to that of tutor in a
neighbouring family. When about twenty years of age, he removed to
Edinburgh, and entering the university, advanced so far in the study of
divinity, as to deliver a discourse preparatory to commencing his trials
before the presbytery. Brown, however, was not destined to be a member of
this profession. Owing to some unexplained freak of feeling, he turned
back from the very threshold, and for some years supported himself in the
humble capacity of a grinder in the university. His services in
this capacity to the medical students introduced him to a knowledge of
medicine, which he suddenly resolved to prosecute as a profession. His
natural ardour of mind enabled him very speedily to master the necessary
studies, in which he was greatly assisted by the particular kindness and
attention of Dr Cullen, then professor of medicine in the university. At
one period, he acted as Latin secretary to this great man, with whom he
afterwards quarrelled in the most violent. manner. In 1765, be married,
and set up a house for the purpose of receiving medical students as
boarders. But, his irregular and improvident conduct reduced him to
bankruptcy in the short space of two years. A vacancy occurring in the
High School, he became a candidate; but being too proud of his real
qualifications to think any other recommendation necessary, he was
overlooked in favour of some child of patronage. It is said that, when his
name, and his name alone, was presented to the eyes of the magistrates,
they derisively asked who he was; to which Cullen, then separated in
affection from his former pupil, is stated to have answered, with some
real or affected hesitation—" Why, sure, this can never be our Jock
!" Brown met with a similar repulse, on applying for the chair of
theoretical medicine in the university. Yet, notwithstanding every
discouragement from the great men of his own profession, this eccentric
genius was pressing on towards the completion of that peculiar system by
which his name has been distinguished. His views were given to the world,
in 1780, under the title "Elementa Medicine ;" and he
illustrated them further by lectures, which wore attended, as a
supernumerary course, by many of the regular students of the university.
The Brunonian system simply consisted in the administration of a course of
stimulants, instead of the so-called anti-phlogistic remedies, as a means
of producing that change in the system which is necessary to work a cure.
The idea was perhaps suggested by his own habits of life, which were
unfortunately so very dissolute as to deprive him of all personal respect.
He was, perhaps, the only great drinker, who ever exulted in that
degrading vice, as justified by philosophical principles. So far from
concealing his practices, he used to keep a bottle of whiskey, and another
of laudanum, upon the table before hint; and, throughout the course of the
lecture, he seldom took fewer than three or four doses from each. In
truth, Brown lived at a time when men of genius did not conceive ii to be
appropriate to their character as such, to conduct themselves with
decency. Thus, a man who might have adorned the highest walks of society
by his many brilliant qualities, was only fit for the company of the
lowest and most despicable characters. He was a devout free-mason, but
more for the sake of the conviviality to which it affords so fatal an
excuse, than for the more recondite and mysterious attractions (if any
such exist) of the fraternity.
He was the founder of a
peculiar lodge in Edinburgh, called the "Roman Eagle," where no
language but Latin was allowed to be spoken. Some of his friends remarked
with astonishment the readiness with which he could translate the
technicalities into slang of masonry into this language, which, however he
at all times spoke with the same fluency as his vernacular Scotch. It
affords a lamentable view of the state of literary society in Edinburgh
between the years 1780 and 1790, that this learned lodge was perhaps
characterised by a deetier system of debauch than any other. In 1786,
Brown removed to London, in order to push his fortune as a lecturer on his
own system of medicine, which had already acquired no little fame. But the
irregularity of his conduct, and the irascibility of his temperament,
rendered all his hopes fruitless. He died at London, October 7, 1799, of a
fit of apoplexy, being then little snore than fifty years of age. His
works have been collected and published by his son; but, like the system
which they explain, they are now forgotten.
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