The eminent surgeon, Sir William Fergusson, the greatest of our
operators, died on Saturday, after a long illness. Sir James Paget,—if not quite his equal as an operator, certainly a surgeon of higher scientific reputation as a physiologist and a medical adviser, —in delivering the IIunterian oration on Tuesday, at the Royal Col. lege of Surgeons, pronounced an animated eulogium on Sir W. Fer- gusson at the close of his lecture :—" No one would again watch those eyes which were so keen and yet so kind, those hands which were so strong and yet so sensitive ; that clear precision and that rigid calmness ; all this had gone ; and with them, those things which would endear him still more to those who knew him, his warm heart and generous nature and social grace ;"—yes, and his more than professional compassion for the sensitive creatures through the sufferings of which physiologists endeavour to extend their knowledge. Sir William Fergusson was one of the few leading men of his profession who declared against vivisection, and gave his hearty testimony against it.
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