Dr. Freind's release from the Tower, handed him over five thou sand guineas, which he had received from the patients of that physician whom he had visited during his friend's imprisonment.

Dr. Mead's house, like that of Sir Joseph Banks at a later period, was the resort of all the most eminent persons of his day. The following concluding remarks upon his character, appear to be derived from an intimate knowledge of his habits:

With respect to science, no discovery was made in which he did not take a lively interest. In the year 1746, the experiments tending to illustrate the nature and properties of electricity were made by Mr., afterwards Sir William Watson; and he was present on a remarkable occasion, to witness the effects of the Leyden phial, then newly invented. It was in the house of the ingenious philosopher whose name has just been mentioned, in Aldersgate-street; and here, amongst a large concourse of people, I saw the Duke of Cumberland, recently returned from Scotland, take the shock with the point of the sword with which he had fought the battle of Culloden.

Two or three years after this I witnessed the famous experiments made on the Thames and at Shooter's-hill, in the presence of the President and several of the Fellows of the Royal Society; in one of which the electrical circuit was made to extend four miles, and the result of the experiment was, that the velocity of electricity seemed to be instantaneous.

'The hospitality of Mead was unbounded; and consequently his housekeeping expenses were very great: for, not content with the reception of his own friends and acquaintances, he kept also a very handsome second table, to which persons of inferior quality were invited. The consequence of this was, that notwithstanding the considerable gains derived from his profession (for several years he made between 50007. and 60007., and during one year he received 70007.), he did not die so rich as might have been expected. The total amount left at his death, including the receipts of the sale of his library, pictures, statues, &c. (which were between 15,000l. and 16,0007.), was about 50,000l.: but this sum was materially diminished by the payment of his debts.

With respect to his manner of living, when not engaged at home, he generally spent his evenings at Batson's Coffee-House; and in the forenoons, apothecaries used to come to him, at Tom's, near Covent Garden, with written or verbal reports of cases, for which he prescribed without seeing the patient, and took half-guinea fees.

The last work he published, which was in 1751, was entitled Medical Precepts and Cautions; in which, with great candour and simplicity, he enumerated all the discoveries that long practice and experience had opened to him concerning diseases and their cures; and concluded with many salutary directions for preserving the body and mind perfect and entire to a good old age. This he attained himself; and preserved till within three years of his death his intellectual powers in a state of perfection. Then he became very corpulent, and his faculties were visibly impaired. But his kindness of heart never deserted him. I shall never forget a piece of insolence on the part of one of his servants, who doubtless presumed on his master's known good-nature and forgiving disposition. Dr. Watson was sitting with Mead in his library, when the latter wishing to read something, looked about for his spectacles, for his eyesight had become very bad;

and not readily finding them, asked his servant for them: upon which the man gave them to him with great rudeness, saying at the time, "You are always losing your things." How I longed to have knocked the fellow down for his brutality!

Dr. Mead died on the 16th of February, 1754, in his eighty-first year, and was buried in the Temple church.

After his death, it was said of him, that of all physicians who had ever flourished, he gained the most, spent the most, and enjoyed the highest fame during his life-time, not only in his own but in foreign countries.'pp. 115–118.

Dr. Askew, the next on the list, was like his friend Dr. Mead, an elegant and accomplished scholar. He is said to be the first who brought bibliomania into fashion. Though not inattentive to professional engagements, most of his time was spent in his library, which was the resort of Archbishop Markham, Sir William Jones, Dr. Farren, Demosthenes Taylor, Dr. Parr, and other most eminent scholars. Dr. Askew had been deemed the greatest traveller of his day, having visited Hungary, Athens, and Constantinople! What would he say had he now risen from the grave, and seen the crowds of our young gentlemen who have been all over the globe?

The gold-headed cane next became the property of Dr. Pitcairn ; from the short account of his life, we shall extract one passage, as, besides the facts which it contains, it affords also, in a few words, an important piece of advice, which we recommend to the attention of our medical friends.

The success of Dr. Pitcairn in practice was great, and though one or two other physicians might possibly derive more pecuniary emolument than himself, certainly no one was so frequently requested by his brethren to afford his aid in cases of difficulty. He was perfectly candid in his opinions, and very frank in acknowledging the extent of his confidence in the efficacy of medicine. To a young friend, who had recently graduated, and who had accompanied him from London to visit a lady, ill of a consumption, and who, on their return, was expressing his surprise at the apparent inertness of the prescription, which had been left behind (which was nothing more than infusion of roses, with a little additional mineral acid), he made this reply, "The last thing a physician learns, in the course of his experience, is to know when to do nothing, but quietly to wait, and allow nature and time to have fair play, in checking the progress of disease, and gradually restoring the strength and health of the patient." His manner was simple, gentle, and dignified; from his kindness of heart, he was frequently led to give more attention to his patients than could well be demanded from a physician; and as this evidently sprung from no interested motive, he often acquired considerable influence with those whom he had attended during sickness. No medical man, indeed, of his eminence in London, perhaps, ever exercised his profession to such a degree gratuitously. Besides, few persons ever gained so extensive an acquaintance with the various orders of society. He associated much with gentlemen, of the law, had a taste for the fine arts, and his employment as a physician in one of the largest hospitals in the kingdom, made known to him a very great number

of persons, of every rank and description in life. His person was tall and erect; his countenance, during youth, was a model of manly beauty, and even, in advanced life, he was accounted remarkably handsome, But the prosperous views that all these combined advantages might reasonably open to him were not of long endurance.'-pp. 146-148.

This was owing to his ill health. It is remarked of him, that though he had great practical skill in his profession, the only contribution which he made towards the advancement of medical knowledge, arose from the circumstances attending his death, which was caused by a disease so peculiar in its nature, that we do not hesitate to give our author's description of it.

On the 13th of April (1809), he complained of a soreness in his throat which, however, he thought so lightly of, that he continued his professional visits during that and the two following days. In the night of the 15th, his throat became worse, in consequence of which he was copiously bled, at his own desire, and had a large blister applied over his throat. On the evening of the 16th, Dr. Baillie called upon him accidentally, not having been apprised of his illness; and, indeed, even then, observed no symptom that indicated danger. But the disease advanced in the course of that night, and a number of leeches were applied to the throat early in the morning. At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Dr. Baillie again saw him. His countenance was now sunk, his pulse feeble and unequal, his breathing laborious, and his voice nearly gone. In this lamentable state, he wrote upon a piece of paper, that he conceived his windpipe to be the principal seat of his complaint, and that this was the croup. The tonsils were punctured, soine blood obtained, and a little relief appeared to have been derived from the operation. Between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, his situation seemed considerably improved; but soon afterwards a slight drowsiness came on. At eight, the patient's breathing became suddenly more difficult, and in a few minutes he was dead. This was the first case of this peculiar affection of the throat that has been distinctly recognised and described. It was an inflammation of the larynx, or upper part of the windpipe, of so insidious a nature, as hitherto to have passed unnoticed.

Although approaching to the well-known complaint called croup, it differs in some respects, particularly by the presence of the following symptoms:Painful deglutition, partial swelling of the fauces, and a perpetually increasing difficulty of breathing. The mouth of the larynx, or aperture, by which air is admitted into the lungs, is so much narrowed, that the vital functions are actually extinguished by the stricture. And yet the apparent inflammation in the throat is so inconsiderable, that, upon a superficial observation, it would hardly be noticed; but in its progress the voice is changed, becomes altogether suppressed, and the disease terminates in suffocation.'-pp. 148-151.

The volume closes with a memoir of Dr. Baillie, which we shall take leave to pass over, as it is not very long since we paid the tribute of our most respectful attention to 'The Life and Works** of that eminent physician.

*See vol. 108 of the former series of the Monthly Review, p. 83.

We believe we are indebted to Dr. Macmichael for this little volume; it is put together in a clear and intelligent manner, and must be particularly acceptable to the rising members of the respectable profession to which he belongs. Works like this, calculated to hold forth as examples, the most successful, the most virtuous, and the most accomplished worthies of any class of men, are peculiarly deserving of commendation, not only for the honour which they confer upon the dead, but for the generous incentives which they administer to the living.

. We must add, however, that this volume is rendered more expensive than it ought to have been, by the very unnecessary introduction of some dozen of wood cuts, which are so wretchedly executed, that they would disgrace a child's "Reading made Easy."

ART. IX. The History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America, till the British Revolution in 1688. By James Grahame, Esq. 2 vols. 11. 8s. London: Longman & Co. 1827. We do not remember to have encountered Mr. Grahame's name, until the present occasion, in the list of candidates for literary honours; and if this be, as we are therefore led to presume, his first historical undertaking, we congratulate him on the evidence of industry, and the promise of excellence which he has here displayed. We augur well of his powers, from this specimen; and though the execution of his work is by no means free from blemishes of various kinds, there is sufficient merit in it to convince us that he is capable of raising himself to an equality with many of the more practised writers of the day. The grave sense which he expresses of the historian's duty, his acknowledged suspicion of his own partialities, and the candid spirit which it has evidently been, at least, his wish to bring to his task, are all circumstances very much in his favour. There can be no doubt that his researches after materials for his purpose have been extensive, and that his use of authorities has been laborious and careful. And his style, though susceptible of improvement, is, in general, clear, simple, and therefore agreeable. Its chief deficiency is in force: but it requires only a little more cultivation and revision, to ensure for it the praise of perfect correctness, and even of elegance.

The few marks of bad taste, and defective judgment, which Mr. Grahame has betrayed, call rather for friendly admonition than severe censure. Without wasting time in the solemn enunciation of truisms, we shall not be suspected of disputing that to inculcate lessons of religion and morality is the best object of history, as it is of all other human knowledge. And the historian who neglects, by well-timed conclusions, to render his labours conducive to the promotion of virtuous principles of action, loses sight of the highest aim of that science which professes to be "philosophy teaching by examples." But he who, on the other hand, in the fervour of zeal,

insists upon making every political transaction the text for a religious commentary, only falls into the opposite extreme, and destroys the weight of all salutary reflection by the mere vulgarity of its application. He distracts the attention, or provokes the impatience of his reader; and where he would piously edify, he only heartily disgusts. Men will not, on all occasions, be forced to convert the picture of the past into the study of ethics: they will not be formally compelled to receive a religious or moral truth in every page of national annals; and such instruction must be conveyed, if attempted at all, not by didactic precepts, but by pleasing insinuation. History is not read as a sermon; and its language should not be the language of the pulpit still less of the conventicle. These necessary maxims of successful and even of useful composition, Mr. Grahame, it seems, has yet to learn for his whole work is largely imbued with devotional unction: as if he had caught the very spirit of the old Puritan chroniclers, of whose interminable "pourings forth" he has drunk deep and eagerly; his own digest of the annals of their godly brethren is written in the same strain of elaborate piety, and interlarded with the same abundance of scriptural allusion. We venture to assure him that all this is not in the very best taste; and, what he will allow to be of more import, that it tends rather to injure than to advance the laudable design by which, we doubt not, it has been wholly prompted.

But a far more serious objection must be taken against the libe rality and sound judgment of Mr. Grahame's opinions, both in political and religious matters. A strong degree of intolerance is observable in some of his sentiments; and this has, perhaps, originated in the same narrowed enthusiasm, which is betrayed in his partiality to the tenets of the Puritans. It is impossible to contemplate the persecution which drove those sectaries from their native land to the deserts of New England, without respect for their constancy and detestation of their oppressors. But Mr. Grahame has transferred his horror at the tyranny of Charles I., and his advisers, to an universal aversion for kings and kingly government. Upon one occasion he carries this so far as to observe, with a somewhat Fanatical hatred of monarchy, the expression of which, to say the least, is not very decent in an English gentleman, that (vol. i. p. 495) 'to come in contact with a king, is a circumstance which heaven, it may be hoped, has decreed shall never be possible within the confines of North America.' His feelings towards the Church of England are scarcely more liberal than his affection for its regal institutions; and, in observing the ejection of the Puritan divines, he uses the opportunity for the charitable remark, that this act afflicted her (the Church of England) with a decay of internal piety, from which, after the lapse of many generations, she has even now but imperfectly revived. It is to be feared that this insidious comment is not unmingled with the spleen of a national and seetarian' prejudice, which, in another passage, is suffered