Summary

1869—The Academy of Medicine

After the death of their father, Bernard and Spencer move to Philadelphia, where they continue the medical training they had begun in Boston, the city of their birth. Spencer begins to keep a journal in 1869, and his first entry reflects his ecstatic joy at being human, with so many complex anatomical systems keeping him alive. He says that death is freedom from consciousness, and he says that consciousness is a symptom of a mystery.

The author says that Spencer Black and his brother part ways when Spencer pursues anatomy and his brother pursues the natural sciences, fossils, and history. The narrator says that great changes are taking place at the time in the field of medical science. Sterilization, anesthesia, and the science of bacteria and infection are changing the nature of surgery, reducing...