Marshall Hall (1790–1857): science and medicine in early Victorian society

Even though Marshall Hall's father was a bleacher, in the eyes of many influential members of the medical profession his son always remained something of a black sheep. In the culture of medicine, Hall cottoned on fast: an Edinburgh MD, followed by Nottinghamshire public and private work, followed by a successful transition to London medical practice. After an opening biographical account, each of these periods in his high-flying career form the early chapters of Manuel's biography. She also shows, however, that Hall was never solely interested in acquiring the staple of a medical living. From the outset, he wanted those much more fancy and finished polite physicians' goods: literary reputation, Fellowship of the Royal Society, and access to its prestigious Transactions. Hall's fluency with the pen on the subjects of diagnosis and the diseases of women and children helped him spin a number of convincing medical yams from the raw material of his early medical experiences gained in hospital, dispensary and private sick room. Later he took up physiological research and began to focus on the reflex function of the spinal nervous system. Thus Hall chose a subject with even more woofs and warps than his overwhelming sense of importance as its self-proclaimed progenitor. And so, like many a manufacturer's son who thought he cut a fine figure in London clothes bearing the "Discoverer" label, he found himself unravelled. His social betters, competing with him for footnotes as well as fortunes, failed to acknowledge and print the fashionable Nottinghamshire designer of the "true spinal system". Some even said it was stolen from a much earlier Eastern European Prochaska show. Hall's relations with the distinctly unimpressed Royal Society and his work on the nervous system constitute two later chapters of Manuel's book. Her final chapter recounts Hall's later years, including a trip to America, writings on slavery, resuscitation and various other remnants he patched together at the last moment. Thus Manuel has chosen the standard and well-tried pattern for relating individual to context. This could be summarized as: general biographical outline, detailed analysis key episodes, and "Final Years" (ch 6) considered as a last dayslast work summary. The end result is a well printed calico which covers Hall usefully and adequately. By the same token, it is unlikely to be paraded on the catwalks of the history of medicine for its innovative treatment and stylish writing. The same biographical details are often rehearsed in several places, and the balance of detail between the analysis of Hall's views and the details of the various controversies he changed in and out of is very much in favour of the latter. Manuel does draw on a variety of modern scholarship to illuminate Hall's career during his London period, when he struggled unsuccessfully for a permanent post which combined practice and teaching at a large hospital-based medical school. However, elsewhere, there is insufficient reference to and use of history of medicine writings published after the mid-1980s, and greater awareness of wider material about early Victorian culture would have helped turn this book from an offthe-peg study to an eye-catcher. Less calico and more batik, in which the social and personal dimensions of Hall's life run into one another, would certainly have livened the show.