Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/345

Rh conduct, and, by admitting him into their body, secured his assistance in a work which they were unable to perform well themselves. In 1793 he assisted in forming a small society of physicians and surgeons, which afterwards published several volumes, under the title of "Medical and Chirurgical Transactions;" and continued to attend its meetings most punctually till within a month or two of his death. Having thus mentioned some of the principal events of his literary life, we shall next give a list of his various medical and philosophical works; and first, of those which were published by himself. 1. Elements of Agriculture and Vegetation. He had given a course of lectures on these subjects to some young men of rank; soon after the close of which, one of his hearers, the late Mr Stuart Mackenzie, presented him with a copy of them, from notes he had taken while they were delivered. Dr Fordyqe corrected the copy, and afterwards published it under the above mentioned title. 2. Elements of the practice of Physic. This w r as used by him as a text-book for a part of his course of lectures on that subject 3. A Treatise on the Digestion of Food. It was originally read before the College of Physicians, as the Guelstonian Lecture. 4. Four Dissertations on Fever. A fifth, which completes the subject, was left by him in manuscript, and afterwards published. His other works appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, and the Medical and Chirurgical Transactions. In the former are eight papers by him, with the following titles: 1, Of the Light produced by Inflammation. 2. Examination of various Ores in the Museum of Dr W. Hunter. 3. A New Method of assaying Copper Ores. 4. An Account of some Experiments on the Loss of Weight in Bodies on being melted or heated. 5. An Account of an Experiment on Heat 6. The Cronian Lecture on Muscular Motion. 7. On the Cause of the additional Weight which Metals acquire on being calcined. 8. Account of a New Pendulum, being the Bakerian Lecture.—His papers in the Medical and Chirurgical Transactions are: 1. Observations on the Small-pox, and Causes of Fever. 2. An Attempt to improve the Evidence of Medicine. 3. Some Observations upon the composition of Medicines. He was, besides, the inventor of the experiments in heated rooms, an account of which was given to the Royal .Society by Sir Charles Bladgen; and was the author of many improvements in various arts connected with chemistry, on which he used frequently to be consulted by manufacturers. Though he had projected various literary works in addition to those which have been mentioned, nothing was left by him in manuscript, except the Dissertation on Fever already spoken of, and two introductory lectures, one to his Course of Materia Medica, the other to that of the Practice of Physic. This will not appear extraordinary to those who knew what confidence he had in the accuracy of his memory. He gave all his lectures without notes, and perhaps never possessed any; he took no memorandum in writing of the engagements he formed, whether of business or pleasure, and was always most punctual in observing them ; and when he composed his works for the public, even such as describe successions of events, found together, as far as we can perceive, by no necessary tie, his materials, such at least as were his own, were altogether drawn from stores in his memory, which had often been laid up there many years before. In consequence of this retentiveness of memory, and of great reading and a most inventive mind, he was, perhaps, more generally skilled in the sciences, which are either directly subservient to medicine, or remotely connected with it, than any other person of his time. One fault in his character as an author, probably arose, either wholly or in part, from the very excellence which has been mentioned. This was his deficiency in the art of literary composition; the knowledge of which he might have insensibly acquired, to a much greater degree than was possessed by him,