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174 aside from the ordinary avocations of his profession to indulge in effusions both prose and verse little consonant with the more general tenor of his occupations. Among these we may notice, A work he published, entitled, "Elogiorum Sepulchralium Edinensium delectus—Monumental inscriptions selected from burial grounds near Edinburgh;" in the preface of which, speaking as the editor, he observes: "Since the death of an amiable son, the editor has made it a religious duty to pay a visit to his grave every Christmas-day, the period of his death. This visit he has also extended to other church-yards, where the dust of several of his best friends is now deposited. His meditations, during these mournful visits, have led him to imagine that he was invited by the calls of gratitude, to take this method of promulgating commemorations of departed worth." He then adds, that he has selected the inscriptions and printed them in that form, for the benefit of " an able scholar, who, depressed by accidental misfortunes in the mercantile line, now supports a young family by his knowledge of ancient and modern languages." This is peculiarly characteristic both of the affectionate and charitable disposition of his nature. He always, even to the very latest period of his life, looked back with satisfaction and pride at the period when he participated in the proceedings of the royal medical society; and it was his custom to go down to the medical hall one night or more every season, for the purpose of hearing the discussions, in which he always expressed great interest In the winter of 1827, he visited it for the last time, being then in the eighty-third year of his age. The members of that society had two years previously testified the high esteem in which they held his memory, by subscribing for a full length portrait of him, which was admirably executed by Mr Watson Gordon, and now adorns the hall of the institution. It had been Dr Duncan's custom for more than half a century to pay an annual visit to the summit of Arthur's Seat every May-day morning. This feat of pedestrianism he accomplished as usual on the 1st of May, 1827; but he was obliged from a feeling of physical infirmity to relinquish the attempt in May, 1828, on which day he had invited some friends to dine with him; finding himself rather unwell in the morning, he Mas under the necessity of retiring and confining himself to his chamber. From this period he was never able to go abroad. His appetite and flesh failed him, and without having suffered any acute distress, he expired on the 5th of July, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

His funeral was attended by the magistrates and town council of Edinburgh; the principal and professors of the university, the royal college of physicians, the managers and medical officers of the royal public dispensary, the royal medical society, the royal physical society, the Caledonian horticultural society, and a large assemblage of private gentlemen, and friends of the venerable deceased.

He published numerous works during the course of his life ; among which, Elements of Therapeutics—Medical Commentaries—Heads of lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic—Annals of Medicine—Essay on Consumption—Medical Cases and Observations, may be regarded as important additions to the medical literature of that period. To the royal college of physicians he bequeathed seventy volumes of MS. notes from the lectures of the founders of the Edinburgh school of medicine, Drs Munro primus, Rutherford, Alston, St Clair, and Plummer, together with one hundred volumes of practical observations in his own hand writing, which he had employed as notes for his clinical lectures. His exertions in his profession, and in the general cause of humanity, obtained for him the highest respect of his contemporaries, both at home and abroad. He was elected a corresponding member of the medical society of Denmark in 1776, and of the royal medical society of Paris in 1778; he was