[1] Roll call of the Royal College of Physicians, article on Macmichael.

[2] £2000 towards the building of the New College of Physicians.

[3] All this has now disappeared; the ground being enclosed about forty years ago, and converted into pasture land.

[4] Earl of Portland.

[5] Earl of Rockford.

[6] The story, to which allusion seems here to be made, is thus related in the life of Radcliffe:

“It will not be much out of the way, to insert a diverting passage between Sir Godfrey Kneller, the King’s chief painter, and the doctor, since it happened near this time; and though not altogether so advantageous to the doctor’s memory as the generality of his sarcastical replies, yet will be of use to bring in a very happy turn of wit from him that speaks in rejoindre to it. The doctor’s dwelling-house, as has been said before, was in Bow-street, Covent Garden, whereunto belonged a very convenient garden, that was contiguous to another, on the back of it, appertaining to Sir Godfrey, which was extremely curious and inviting, from the many exotic plants, and the variety of flowers and greens, which it abounded with. Now, as one wall divided both inclosures, and the doctor had some reason, from his intimacy with the knight, to think he would not give a denial to any reasonable request, so he took the freedom when he was one day in company with the latter, after extolling his fine parterres and choice collection of herbs, flowers, &c. to desire the liberty of having a door made, for a free intercourse with both gardens, but in such a manner as should not be inconvenient to either family.

“Sir Godfrey, who was and is a gentleman of extraordinary courtesy and humanity, very readily gave his consent; but the doctor’s servants, instead of being strict observers of the terms of agreement, made such a havock amongst his hortulanary curiosities, that Sir Godfrey was out of all patience, and found himself obliged, in a very becoming manner, to advertise their master of it, with his desires to him, to admonish them for the forbearance of such insolencies; yet notwithstanding this complaint, the grievance continued unredressed; so that the person aggrieved found himself under the necessity of letting him that ought to make things easy know, by one of his servants, that he should be obliged to brick up the door, in case of his complaints proving ineffectual. To this the doctor, who was very often in a cholerick temper, and from the success of his practice imagined every one under an obligation of bearing with him, returned answer, ‘That Sir Godfrey might do even what he pleased with the door, so that he did not paint it:’ alluding to his employment, in which none was a more exquisite master. Hereupon a footman, after some hesitation in the delivery of his message, and several commands from his master, to give it him word for word, told him as above. ‘Did my very good friend, Dr. Radcliffe, say so?’ cried Sir Godfrey: ‘go you back to him, and, after presenting my service to him, tell him that I can take anything from him but physic.’”—(The Editor.)

[7] Verhaal der Laatste Ziekte en het overlijden, van Willem de Derde, &c. &c., in Leide, 1702.

[8] Lettre de M. Ronjat, Premier Chirurgien de feu Sa MajestÉ Britannique Guillaume III.; Écrite de Londres À un Medecin de ses Amis en Hollande.

[9] The Tabula or Mensa Isiaca is one of the most considerable monuments of antiquity. It was discovered at Rome, in the year 1525. There are represented upon it various figures in bas relief, mixed with some hieroglyphics, which are supposed to relate to the feasts of Isis. Many speculations have been advanced on the history and date of this curious relic of ancient times.

[10] By his will he left his Yorkshire estate to the Master and Fellows of University College for ever, in trust for the foundation of two travelling fellowships, the overplus to be paid to them, for the purpose of buying perpetual advowsons for the members of the said College.

£5,000 for the enlargement of the building of University College, where he himself had been educated.

£40,000 for the building of a library at Oxford.

£500 yearly for ever, towards mending the diet of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

After the payment of these bequests, and some legacies to various individuals mentioned in the will, he gave to his executors, in trust, all his estates in Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, and Surrey, to be applied to such charitable purposes as they in their discretion should think best; but no part thereof to their own use or benefit.

The Radcliffe Library, which is perhaps the most beautiful building in Oxford, was finished in 1749, when it was opened in a public ceremony: it has been appropriated, by a late resolution of the Trustees, to the reception of books in medicine and natural history. But that classical city has to boast of two other edifices which bear the name of the same munificent benefactor, and in their building the Trustees have been equally attentive to the interests of science and humanity. The Observatory and Public Infirmary were both erected out of the funds of Dr. Radcliffe, by the Trustees of his will. The first of these edifices consists of a dwelling-house for the Observer, and is amply supplied with astronomical instruments: it is one of the buildings first asked for by foreigners who visit the University, and is remarkable for its beautiful staircase. The Radcliffe Infirmary was opened for the reception of patients, 1770.

From time to time, according to their means and as opportunities present themselves, the faithful and enlightened guardians of these funds have ever been found ready (in the exercise of the discretionary power with which they are entrusted) to contribute to every charitable and useful purpose.

[11] Bustorum aliquot ReliquiÆ. There is a copy of this curious MS. now in the College Library: it was purchased at the sale of Lord Verney’s books, and presented to the College of Physicians by Dr. Munro, June 25, 1783.

[12] Afterwards inhabited by Sir John Rushout.

[13] At this time he weighed more than thirty stone, though he afterwards, by changing his habits, and living on milk and vegetables, reduced himself to less than half that weight.

[14] During his stay in Jamaica, a vast treasure which had been sunk in a Spanish galleon, about forty-five years before, somewhere near Hispaniola, or the Bahama Islands, was brought into the Downs. It had been weighed up by some gentlemen, who were at the charge of divers, &c. to the enriching them beyond all expectation. The Duke of Albemarle, as Governor of Jamaica, received for his share, about £90,000. A medal was struck on the occasion.

[15] This anticipation was actually realized not two years ago; for the mere agitation of the Plague question in the House of Commons excited the greatest alarm among the maritime nations of Europe, and for several months vessels sailing from England were put into quarantine at the different ports in the Mediterranean.

[16] I have heard that all these particulars are carefully recorded on the monument of this dropsical lady, in Bunhill Fields.

[17] This subject had long occupied the thoughts of Dr. Mead, although his treatise styled “Medica Sacra, sive de Morbis insignioribus qui in Bibliis memorantur, Commentarius,” did not appear till 1749.

[18] This appointment was held by Dr. Gideon Harvey, from the year 1719 till 1754.

[19] Arbuthnot was a dilettante in the art of music, and occasionally composed sacred pieces. One anthem by him, “As pants the hart,” is in the collection of the Chapel Royal.

[20] At Mead’s sale this statue, three feet and a half high, was bought by Dr. Anthony Askew, for £50. On the same occasion, a magnificent statue of Antinous, of white marble and of the size of nature, was purchased by the Marquess of Rockingham, for £241. 10s. The celebrated bronze head of Homer was sold for £136. 10s. to Lord Exeter.

[21] De Medicorum apud Veteres Romanos Degentium Conditione. Cantab. 1726.

[22] A little dialogue between Soarenes and Chirurgi.—The name of Caius was spelt in many ways—Gauius, Gavius, Kaius. AnglicÈ—Kaye, Keye, Cay.

[23] The term Reader (PrÆlector) seems to have gone into disuse, except perhaps at Oxford, where the “Reader in Anatomy” teaches that Science, in Christ Church, in a small but elegant Theatre, which gives the ill-omened name of Skeleton Corner to a thickly peopled, but very inconvenient angle of that distinguished College.

[24] In 1665, Richard Lower made this experiment at Oxford; by means of long tubes, the blood of the vertebral artery of one dog was made to pass into the jugular vein of another, and it appeared proved, that there was no reason to fear any mischief, and that the character or nature of one animal was not likely to be changed by injecting into its veins the blood of another. An experiment similar to this, which preceded it a few years, and which, like it, was founded on the doctrine of the circulation of the blood, viz. the injecting of various fluids impregnated with remedies into the veins of animals, was originally suggested by Sir Christopher Wren, the celebrated architect. He was one of the early Fellows of the Royal Society, and being a man of the most universal accomplishments, was fond of the study of medicine, and occasionally employed his talents in the service of anatomical science; in proof of which, it may be mentioned that he gave the original drawings for the plates which illustrate Willis’ Anatomy of the Brain.

[25] The general reader may require to be told, that these are terms applied to particular parts of the liver, the heart, and the brain: though the anatomist may be surprised, that in the enumeration are not included many other names derived from the discoverers of particular minute structures: more especially that no notice was taken of the claim which Willis has to the honour of having first proposed the classification of the cerebral nerves, now most usually adopted, and given denominations to several of them, which they will most probably always retain.

[26] What is this to the modern quackery of craniology, in which every faculty and feeling has a distinct organ, in which it is generated, which however it deprives of the merit, small as it is, of originality?

[27] It is amusing to contrast this first rude natural infusion, with the present neat and condensed form of exhibiting the bark: for now a grain or two of the sulphate of quinine is the ordinary dose of the remedy.

[28] The black wash now so generally used by Surgeons is a prescription of Sir Theodore Mayerne’s, by the use of which he performed a great cure upon Sir Kenelm Digby. His formula is this:—

[29] Called Editio Optima.

[30] Some envious antiquary has lately insinuated that the coins from which Mead drew this inference were struck in honour of magistrates and not of medical men.

[31] Will no one erect a monument to Garth? He and his wife are buried under the communion-table in the chancel of Harrow church, with nothing but the following rude inscription to mark the spot:—

“In this Vault Lies ye Body of ye Lady Garth, Late Wife of Sir Samuel Garth, Kt. Who Dyed ye 14th of May, In ye year 1717.

Sir Samuel Garth, Obijt jan^e: the 18th, 1718.”

[32] This elegant villa had been recently purchased by the poet, with part of the money he had received for his translation of the Iliad; an enormous sum in those days, between five and six thousand pounds: but what was that in comparison with the hundred and twenty thousand pounds which the great popular author of the present time has received for the various works with which he has delighted and instructed the world?

[33] Now more than 300 years.

[34] In the British Museum there are two copies of Linacre’s translation of the fourteen books of Galen’s Methodus Medendi. They are in the finest possible condition, and are the presentation copies of Henry the Eighth and Cardinal Wolsey. The title of the King’s copy is illuminated with the royal arms; that of Wolsey’s is decorated with the Cardinal’s hat. On the binding of his Majesty’s are the royal arms and motto impressed; the dedication to the Cardinal is in manuscript: they are both on spotless vellum.

[35] Dr. Alexander Read gave, by will, £100 to ornament the Anatomical Theatre.

[36] Dr. Prujean.

[37] In March, 1823, the late Earl of Winchilsea presented to the College some anatomical preparations which belonged to his ancestor Dr. Harvey; for the niece of Harvey was married to the Lord Chancellor Nottingham, of whom the late Earl was the direct descendant, and possessed his property. At Burleigh on the Hill, where these curious preparations had been carefully kept, is a fine picture of the illustrious physician. Lord Winchilsea, in presenting them to the College of Physicians, expressed a hope that these specimens of the scientific researches of Harvey might be deemed worthy of their acceptance, and thought that they could nowhere be so well placed as in the hands of that learned body, of which he had been so distinguished a member. The preparations themselves consist of six tables or boards, upon which are spread the different nerves and blood-vessels, carefully dissected out of the body: in one of them the semi-lunar valves of the aorta are distinctly to be seen. When Harvey delivered his Lumleian Lectures, he may frequently have exhibited these preparations, and by their help explained some points of his new doctrine of the circulation of the blood. They were most probably made by Harvey himself; and he might have learned the art in Italy, for he studied at Padua in 1602. A few years afterwards, on his return to England, he was appointed anatomical and surgical lecturer to the College of Physicians, and in 1616, read a course of lectures there, of which the original manuscripts are preserved in the British Museum. In the College of Surgeons are some preparations similar to these of Harvey, which originally belonged to the Museum of the Royal Society, kept at Gresham College. They were the generous gift of John Evelyn, Esquire, who bought them at Padua, where he saw them, with great industry and exactness (according to the best method then used) taken out of the body of a man, and very curiously spread upon four large tables. They were the work of Fabritius Bartoletus, then Veslingius’s assistant there, and afterwards physician to the King of Poland. Vide Catalogue or Description of the natural and artificial Rarities belonging to the Royal Society, etc. By Nehemiah Grew, 1681.

Since the time of Harvey, the method of preserving different parts of the body has undergone many changes, and much improvement; and the history of the art would be a subject of curious investigation.

In the Philosophical Transactions for May 7, 1666, Mr. Boyle mentions a method he had invented of preserving or embalming the embryo of a chick in a glass filled with spirit of wine, to which he sometimes added a little sal armoniack, as he observed it never coagulated the spirit of wine.

Ruysch, the professor at Amsterdam, if not the discoverer of the use of injections, for the display of vascular and other structure, contributed, together with the suggestions of De Graaf and Swammerdam, by his own ingenuity and industry, to introduce that important practice among anatomists. His museum became ultimately the most magnificent that any private individual had ever, at that time, accumulated, and was the resort of visitors of every description. Generals, ambassadors, princes, and even kings, were happy in the opportunity of visiting it. It was purchased in 1717, by the Czar Peter the Great, for thirty thousand florins, and sent to Petersburg.

Dr. Frank Nicholls, who married a daughter of Mead’s, was the inventor of corroded anatomical preparations. He was at one time professor of anatomy at Oxford, and author of a treatise De Anim MedicÂ.

[38] Selden, styled by Grotius, the “glory of the English nation,” died about this time, and is thus noticed by Hamey in his Bustorum aliquot ReliquiÆ.

“Johannes Seldenus J. C. Qui res a memori remotissimas revocare mortalibus in memoriam semper studuit; Ipsus omnium oblivisci morte coactus est.”—1 Dec. 1654.

This may serve as a specimen of the epigrammatic style of this curious work, which is generally characterized by great good nature, though occasionally the author indulges in a vein of sarcasm; as, for example, when speaking of one of his contemporaries, he describes him as—

[39] One hundred and twelve folio books were saved from the flames. About ten years before this calamity, the College of Physicians had been enriched by the will of Sir Theodore Mayerne, who left his Library to them. This prosperous physician, who enjoyed the singular honour of having been physician to four kings, viz. Henry IV. of France, James I. Charles I. and Charles II. of England, died very rich. It is said he left behind him £10,000 more than Radcliffe. He was a man of singular address, and distinguished for his knowledge of chemistry and natural philosophy. The famous enamel painter Petitot, when in England, was introduced by Mayerne to Charles I. and was indebted also to him for many valuable hints as to the principal colours to be used for enamel, and the best means of vitrifying them.

[40] This eminent surgeon and anatomist was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society at the early age of twenty-three years; and soon justified their choice by a variety of curious and useful communications. He was chief surgeon of St. Thomas’s Hospital; was also consulting surgeon of St. George’s Hospital and the Westminster Infirmary, and had the honour of being appointed principal surgeon to Queen Caroline, by whom he was highly esteemed. He was much distinguished for his skill as a lithotomist, and added also greatly to his reputation by couching a lad of nearly fourteen years of age, who was either born blind, or had lost his sight so early as to have no recollection of ever having seen. The observations made by the patient, after obtaining the blessing of sight, are singularly curious, and have been much reasoned upon by several writers on vision. Surgery is much indebted to Cheselden for the simplicity which he introduced into it. In his own practice he was guided by consummate skill, was perfectly master of his hand, fruitful in resources, prepared for all events, operating with remarkable dexterity and coolness. He was, in the strict sense of the term, a great surgeon; and, being a man of singular candour and humanity, and fond of the polite arts, was honoured by the friendship and acquaintance of men of genius and taste.

[41] His Micyllus de Re Metric was one which he prized highly.

[42]

[43] Evelyn relates that he dined with Dr. Whistler in the house which stands on the right hand as you cross the court, in 1683, and met on that occasion Sir Thomas Millington, the President. He represents them both as learned men, and speaks of Dr. Whistler, who was then Censor, as the most facetious man in nature, and says, that he was himself then consulted about the building of this Library.

[44] Marmor incisum epitaphium, in suo apud nos MusÆo.—Hamey’s MS.

[45] Sloane Street and Hans Place are names still retained: the estate now belongs to Lord Cadogan. Charles, Baron Oakley, brother of the first Earl Cadogan, married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Hans Sloane.

[46] It is by Rysbrach, and cost £280.

[47] It is related of this gentleman that he corresponded with seventy different persons, and yet that he was very punctual; for he never read a letter without having pen, ink, and paper ready to write the answer, by which means he prevented his letters from accumulating, and himself from being fatigued, by having many answers to write at the same time.

[48] The fate of Poland is well known. The destiny of the family bearing the name of Poniatowsky has been equally disastrous. At the battle of Leipsic, wounded, and while covering the retreat of the French army, in attempting to leap the narrow stream which flows past that city, Prince Joseph Poniatowsky fell, and was drowned. A simple monument is erected to him in a garden, on the bank of the river where he perished, with this inscription upon it:

Hic
In Undis Elystri
Josephus Poniatowsky
Princeps
Summus ExercitÛs Polonorum PrÆfectus,
Imperii Gallici Mareschallus, Tribus Vulneribus
Letiferis acceptis, Ultimus ex Acie discedens
Dum receptum magni Gallorum Exercitus tuetur,
Vit GloriÆ et PatriÆ sacrat functus est
Die 19 Octobris, An. 1813,
Anno Ætatis Impleto 52.
Popularis Populari, Duci Miles,
Hoc Monumentum, Lachyrmis suis irrigatum,
Posuit
Alexander Rozniecki.

[49] The benefit conferred upon his countrymen by this discovery was thus spoken of in an Harveian oration, delivered 1809:—QuÒd si unum civem qui servasset, coron quondam civili esset donandus; quid ille meruit, qui totam provinciam in salutem vindicavit?