in politics. Indeed. he was so well pleased with his own times that he often declared, when quite advanced in life, that, could he have had his choice of the different periods of the world, he would have selected the present in which to live.

Our deceased friend was a real christian. He was intimately acquainted with the scriptures; and, although he had frequently perused them, and regulated his conduct according to their principles as far as his imperfect nature would permit, yet during the latter period of his life they became his principal study, and from them he derived those consolations which enabled him to bear disease without a murmur, and to meet death without being conscious of his sting. The vicarious righteousness of Christ, his favorite doctrine, he was fond of introducing in conversation upon proper occasions, as well for the benefit of his fellow beings, as for the glory of the author of this system of faith. His religion was of that ennobling sort which testifies to its own worth. His feelings ran naturally in the channel of devotion; and he reposed upon the scheme of salvation as the resting place ordained by the Deity for the soul

of man.

Dr. Tilton departed this life on the 14th of May 1822, having lived seventy-seven years, wanting seventeen days; on the very day of the last annual meeting of the Medical Society of this State, whose president he had been for many years, and at the re-organization of which no man could have been better pleased. He considered its resuscitation, with its enlarged powers, as constituting a new era in the medical history of his native State. He was one of the earliest members of the Society, and soon became one of its highest ornaments.

His friend, Mr. J. Bellach, in whose arms he died, in giving me an account of his death, writes thus: "I arrived at Dr. Tilton's at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and at 4, the good old gentleman bade adieu to this world. His mental faculties were not perceptibly impaired by his last illness, nor did he appear to suffer much, if any pain. I felt a peculiar, though certainly a melancholy satisfaction, in witnessing the peaceful exit, and in closing the eyes of this long tried and faithful friend of my father, and of my father's house; the man of whom I have the earliest recollection; whom I was taught from my cradle to love and to honor, as I have done at all times and upon all occasions, most cordially.

"In whatever view we may consider the character of Dr. Tilton, we shall find many traits to distinguish him from other men. He was in many respects an original; wholly unlike most other men in person, countenance, manners, speech, gesture and habits. His height was about six feet and a half, and his structure slender. His face is admirably portrayed in a painting taken by Otis, and now in the possession of his nephew, Dr. James Tilton. Whether he walked or sat still, whether in conversation or mute; whether he ate, drank or smoked; whether in a grave mood, or indulging in his loud laugh, all was in a style peculiar to himself and

most remarkable," For honesty and frankness he was proverbial; in these important points he had few equals, certainly no superiors. His whole life afforded a luminous example of the effects of deeprooted principles and moral rectitude upon the conduct of men; and we have the fullest assurance to believe that he has reached those realms of peace and happiness, from which he can never be separated; and has become the "just man, made perfect."-Thatcher's Lives.

'ware.

EDWARD MILLER, M. D.

EDWARD MILLER was a native of Dover, in the State of DelaHe was born on the 9th of May, 1760. His father was the Rev. John Miller, A. M., originally of Boston, Massachusetts, who, for more than forty-three years, sustained the office of pastor of the Presbyterian church in Dover, and who died in the year 1791. His mother was Margaret Millington, daughter of Allumby Millington, Esq. of Talbot county, Maryland, a woman of extraordinary prudence, piety and benevolence, who was removed by death about eighteen months before her husband. Edward was their third son, and received the early part of his education under the paternal roof. His father who was an excellent Greek, Latin and Hebrew scholar, commenced his instruction in classical literature. At the age of fourteen, he was sent to the Academy of Newark, in his native State, which then enjoyed a very high reputation. There, under the direction of the Rev. Drs. Francis Allison and Alexander M'Dowell, he devoted four years to the diligent study of the Latin and Greek languages, and went through the usual course of arts and sciences pursued in colleges. Indeed the academy of Newark was at that time a college in every thing excepting the name. Having completed his academic course in 1778, he entered on the study of medicine soon afterwards under the direction of Dr. Charles Ridgely, an eminent physician of Dover, who regarded him as a favorite pupil, and always treated him with peculiar and affectionate confidence.

He had been a little more than two years with Dr. Ridgely, when, in the autumn of 1780, fired with that patriotic ardor which he manifested till his latest breath, not at all discouraged by the loss of a beloved brother, also a physician, who a little more than three years before, had fallen a sacrifice to the hardships of the revolutionary contest; and desirous also of enjoying the advantages for medical improvement, which a large military hospital eminently affords; he accepted the appointment of surgeon's mate in the army of his country. In this capacity he served a little more than a year. In the latter part of the year 1781, at the solicitation of some friends, he accepted the place of surgeon on board of an armed ship bound to France. In this voyage, and in that country, he

spent the greater part of a year. In the course of this time he acquired the French language, which he ever afterwards read and spoke with fluency. Towards the close of 1782 he returned to his native country. In each of the two following winters he attended regular courses of medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania; and in that institution received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, after writing, defending, and afterwards printing, as was then required, a medical dissertation De Physiconia Splenica.

Dr. Miller in the year 1784 commenced the practice of medicine in the village of Frederica, a short distance from his native town in Delaware: but soon afterwards removed to Somerset county, in Maryland. Here also his stay was short. In 1786 he returned to Dover, and entered on the practice of his profession in his native place. Here he remained ten years, enjoying a large and lucrative practice, and rapidly growing in knowledge and reputation. During this time he was not only a devoted and successful student himself, but was unwearied in his exertions to promote medical science throughout his native State. In company with his venerable friend, Dr. Tilton, and others, he assisted in forming the first "Medical Society of Delaware;" delivered its first annual oration; and as long as he remained in the State, took an active part in all the important proceedings of that association.

In the year 1793, when the yellow fever first prevailed to an alarming extent in Philadelphia, the medical controversy respecting its origin, began to attract general attention in this country. Dr. Miller, though then residing in Dover, and of course considerably removed from the centre and heat of the battle, was by no means inattentive to its nature or its progress. He at that time, from the best comparison of testimony on the subject which he was able to make, decided in favor of the doctrine of domestic origin, and wrote a long and interesting letter to Dr. Rush, stating his views, and the grounds of his opinion. This letter was afterwards published in most of the American newspapers, and drew from the illustrious man to whom it was addressed, the public declaration, that he considered its author as "second to no physician in the United States." It is believed that the letter in question was one of the earliest publications made in support of the opinion which it espoused.

In 1796 Dr. Miller removed from Dover to the city of New York. Here he soon conciliated the esteem and confidence of his medical brethren; and notwithstanding the many disadvantages under which a stranger engages in the competition for medical practice in a great city; he succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. His business, in a few months, became such as to afford him an ample support, and continued to become more and more

extensive until his death.

In a few weeks after his removal to New York, Dr. Miller, in connexion with his friends, Dr. Mitchell and the late Dr. Elihu H. Smith, formed the plan of a periodical publication to be devoted to

medical science. Their prospectus was issued in November of that year, 1796; and in the month of August, 1797, the first number of the work appeared, under the title of the "Medical Repository." The commencement of this publication undoubtedly forms an era in the literary and medical history of our country. No work of a similar kind had ever appeared in the United States. Its influence in exciting and recording medical inquiries, and in improving medical science, soon became apparent. It led to the establishment of other and similar works in different parts of our own country, as well as of Europe; and may thus, with great truth, be said to have contributed more largely than any other single publication to that taste for medical investigation and improvement, which has been, for a number of years, so conspicuously and rapidly advancing on this side of the Atlantic. Dr. Miller lived to see the fifteenth volume of this work nearly brought to a close, and rejoiced in the generous competition which it had been so evidently the means of exciting.

Dr. Miller had not been many years established in the practice of his profession in New York, before he received testimonies of public confidence of the most decisive and honorable kind. In 1803, under the act of the legislature of the State, for preventing the introduction of pestilential diseases, he was appointed "Resident Physician" for the city of New York. This office he continued to hold from that time, with the exception of a single year, until his death; and through the several pestilential seasons which succeeded this appointment, he fulfilled its duties, as all acknowledged, with skill, intrepidity, and universal acceptance. The summer and autumn of 1805, was the last season in which Dr. Miller was called to witness, to any considerable extent, the ravages of yellow fever. At the close of the season, in his official character as Resident Physician, he addressed to His Excellency Governor Lewis, a report of the rise, progress and termination of that disease. To this detail he added an exhibition and defence of the doctrine concerning the origin of yellow fever; which, after much inquiry and long experience, he had adopted. This report was shortly afterwards laid before the public; and has been pronounced by good judges to be one of the most luminous, forcible, comprehensive and satisfactory defences of the doctrine which it supports, that ever appeared, within the same compass, in any language.

In 1807, Dr. Miller was elected Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of New York. This appointment was made in the month of March, he entered on the duties of the office in November following; and continued to fulfil them, with increasing popularity and usefulness, until near the period of his death. In 1809, he was appointed one of the physicians of the New York hospital; and soon afterwards received the appointment of clinical lecturer in that institution. To the arduous duties of these several stations he devoted himself with indefatigable zeal and fidelity, and, at the same time, with an urbanity of manner,

which conciliated the respect and admiration of all who had an opportunity of witnessing them.

While Dr. Miller was assiduously and ably fulfilling these duties, and attending also to the multiplied calls of a large professional practice, he carried on an extensive correspondence with distinguished physicians, and other literary gentlemen of eminence, in almost every part of Europe and America. From Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, and the West India islands, he habitually received communications, which rendered him, in a degree which could be ascribed to very few medical gentlemen in the United States, a centre of intelligence for every thing pertaining to the improvement of the science to which he had devoted his life. For this correspondence he was peculiarly qualified. He had a facility and elegance in letter writing, which have been rarely equalled, and perhaps never surpassed.

In 1805, he was elected a member of the "Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge." The principal medical societies of almost all the States in the Union, also enrolled his name among their corresponding or honorary members. And the letters which every week flowed in upon him from all quarters, communicating medical intelligence, or soliciting professional advice, furnished the most decisive evidence of the large share of public confidence which he enjoyed, and of his ing reputation.

grow

Thus occupied in public and private business, accumulated to such an amount as scarcely to leave him an hour of repose, either by day or by night, he was arrested by that iron grasp of disease, from which he had so often been the means of disengaging others; and to the grief of all who knew him, sunk under its power. He fell a victim to an inflammatory attack upon the lungs, which, after symptoms of convalescence, degenerated into a typhus fever, which put an end to his valuable life on the 17th day of March 1812, in the 52d year of his age.

From the foregoing details it will be manifest that Dr. Edward Miller was a physician of very uncommon endowments, and that he filled an uncommonly large and important space in the republics of medicine and literature in his day. His native talents were, undoubtedly, of the first order. Nor was his intellectual culture less eminent. His acquaintance with the best writers in his own language was unusually intimate and extensive, and hence his own style of writing had an ease, elegance and spirit very rarely attained. He was also a radical and accurate Latin, Greek, and French scholar, and took pleasure in maintaining to the end of his life, a familiarity with many of the best works in those languages. But in medical science, and as a practitioner of the healing art, he shone with peculiar lustre. Dr. Rush, as we have seen, pronounced him "inferior to no physician in the United States."

Dr. Miller's published writings were not numerous. A few of them were originally printed in detached pamphlets; but the greater