The Weber collection; Greek coins ... - Forvm Ancient Coins

INTRODUCTION
marriage in 1854 to an English lady, Matilda Griining. In order to obtain an English qualification,
he underwent a period of study at Guy's Hospital, and in 1855, became a Member of the
Royal College of Physicians, to which, four years later, he was elected a Fellow. Among his
friends in the early days in London were Thomas Addison, Edmund Parkes, Wilson Fox and Hilton
Fagge. His affection and admiration for Parkes led him in 1894 to present to the College a sum
of € 3000 to found a prize to be awarded every third year to the author of the best essay upon
some subject connected with the etiology, prevention, pathology or treatment of tuberculosis.
The prize, appropriately named the Weber-Parkes Prize, has been awarded on five occasions \
Weber was from the first specially interested in the treatment of consumption, and he was
one of the pioneers of the open-air treatment, being one of the first to advise patients to spend
the winter in the high valleys of the Engadine. Himself an alpinist, he became an enthusiastic
member of the Alpine Club, and made many early ascents of difficult mountains. In his sixty-
eighth year he climbed the Wetterhorn and Jungfrau, when seventy-three crossed the Capuchin
from Pontresina to Sils, and in his eightieth year crossed the Diavolezza several times.
Among Weber's famous patients may be mentioned five Prime Ministers, namely, Lord Derby,
Earl Russell (Lord John Russell), Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, and Sir H. Campbell-Baner-
mann. He was also frequently consulted on the choice of a health resort for members of the Royal
Family. His professional status was recognized by the Royal College of Physicians, when he served
on the Council for five years, being Censor in 1879 and 1880. King Edward, then Prince of
Wales, appointed him a delegate to the Berlin Congress on the Prevention of Tuberculosis in
1899. He was on terms of intimacy with Lord Lister, Sir William Jenner, Sir James Paget, Sir
William Gull, Sir Henry Thompson, Sir Spencer Wells, and many other eminent members of the
medical profession.
Sir Hermann Weber retired from practice at the age of eighty, but continued to take a keen
interest in medical science and hygiene, and remained a contributor to medical periodicals. One of
his later works, on ' Means for the Prolongation of life', has reached four editions. The value of his
teaching was certainly well illustrated in his own case, for at the age of ninety-five he was able to
walk on an average fifty miles a week regardless of weather. I remember meeting him one morn-
ing before nine a few weeks before his death, alert and fresh, taking his 'constitutional', a strong
wind blowing, which would have deterred many a younger man from venturing out unless of
necessity. As Sir Norman Moore wrote of him, " when one met him he never seemed the least
I. Obituary notice from the British Medical Journal for November 23rd, 1918.
'•' The Weber-Parkes Prize Medal of the Royal College of Physicians of London is the work of the London med-
allist, Mr. Frank Bowcher, and the conception of the reverse design was due to Sir Hermann Weber himself.
Mr. Bowcher was also assisted by Mr. Alexander Stuart Murray, the late keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities
in the British Museum . On
the obverse is a fine portrait of Sir Hermann Weber, in profile to left. The reverse of the
medal represents Asklepios seated with Demeter, Apollo and Herakles standing before him. The idea is that the phy-
sician (represented by Asklepios) avails himself of the powers of Nature in preventing and curing pulmonary tuber-
culosis. He requires for these purposes : food, supplied by Demeter ; light and warmth, supplied by Apollo (the sun,
the promoter of growth and the destroyer of injurious microbes); and, further, purity of air and muscular force, indi-
cated by Herakles. The figures are taken from Greek sculptures and coins of the best period of Greek art " (Dr F. P.
Weber, op. cit., PI. xiv).
There isa Medallic Portrait of Sir Hermann Weber, by the French Medallist, Alphee Dubois, of Paris (1893). The
portrait is chiefly after a very good photograph taken in 1881. The reverse celebrates the 70th year of his age, and
is the work of Mr. Frank Bowcher (see F. Parkes Weber, " English Medals by Foreign Artists", London, 1894).
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