Heinrich von Glauben was a man of somewhat extraordinary character and
individuality. In his youth he had made a sudden meteoric fame for his
marvellous skill and success in surgery, as also for his equally
surprising quickness and correctness in diagnosing obscure diseases and
tracing them to their source. But, after creating a vast amount of
discussion and opposition among his confreres, and almost reaching that
brilliant point of triumph when his originality and cleverness were
proved great enough to win him a host of enemies, he all at once threw
up the game as it were, and, resigning the favourable opportunities of
increasing distinction offered him in his native Germany, accepted the
comparatively retired and private position he now occupied. Some said
it was a disappointment in love which had caused his abrupt departure
from the Fatherland,--others declared it was irritation at the severe
manner in which his surgical successes had been handled by the medical
critics,--but whatever the cause, it soon became evident that he had
turned his back on the country of his birth for ever, and that he was
apparently entirely satisfied with the lot he had chosen. His post was
certainly an easy and pleasant one,--the members of the Royal family to
which his services were attached were exceptionally healthy, as Royal
families go; and he was seldom in more than merely formal attendance,
so that he had ample time and opportunity to pursue those deeper forms
of physiological study which had excited the wrath and ridicule of his
contemporaries, as well as to continue the writing of a book which he
intended should make a stir in the world, and which he had entitled
"The Moral and Political History of Hunger."

"For," said he--"Hunger is the primal civilizer,--the very keystone
and foundation of all progress. From the plain, prosy, earthy fact that
man is a hungry animal, and must eat, has sprung all the civilization
of the world! I shall demonstrate this in my book, beginning with the