Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/269

Rh surest basis? Who has erected for Europe a model of statistical information, and carried it the length of twenty volumes, in the face of all difficulties? Who has created a centre for Great Britain's best and dearest interests, her agricultural produce? Who has provided the means of improvement for a chief staple of England, her wool? Who has toiled most earnestly for converting waste land into fertile fields, and inclosing dreary commons? And who has essentially opposed the inveteracy of bad habits, and the indolence of traditionary customs, even among our farmers? To whom do we owe this, and more? All this, we must own, we owe to Sir John Sinclair, and almost to him alone."

The investigations of Sir John on the subject of health, with reference, in the first case, to himself, had been so beneficial to others, by the publication of his pamphlet on "Longevity," as sufficed to interest his benevolence; and he resolved to continue his inquiries into the subject. The result was his "Code of Health and Longevity" a work in four volumes octavo, which was published at Edinburgh in 1807. It comprised an enormous amount of reading, subjected to his favourite processes of analysis and arrangement. His friends were alarmed at this new adventure, and thought that after obtaining such distinction in other departments, he should have left the physicians in possession of their own field. The latter also were wroth at his entrance, and rose in a body to drive the intruder from their premises. It is a grievous offence in their eyes that one even of their own order should betray the sacred mysteries of healing to the uninitiated; but that it should be done by a knight, statesman, financier, and agriculturist, who ought therefore to know little or nothing of the matter, was a monstrous trespass, for which no punishment could be too great. The faculty therefore took up their pens, and few medical prescriptions could be more bitter than the criticisms they emitted as an antidote to the "Code." But it was an excellent code notwithstanding, and the rules of health which he had gathered from every quarter were founded upon the principles of temperance and active exertion, and tested by common sense and long-confirmed experience. Not only individuals 'but communities were considered, and not one, but every class, could find in it directions, not merely for the recovery, but the preservation of a sound healthy temperament. To sedentary persons of every kind, to students, and to hypochondriacs, this work was especially useful; and such, by attending to his simple directions, could not only hold despondency and dyspepsia in defiance, but retain that mens sana in corpore sano which is so often sacrificed as the price of their occupation.

The "Code of Longevity" was followed by another of a different description: this was the "Code of Agriculture," which Sir John published in 1819. For this, in truth, there was much need. The Agricultural Society had done much, in multiplying, to an almost indefinite extent, the results of their inquiries and discoveries in the cultivation of the soil and improvement of live stock; but these were scattered over such a vast extent of publication as to be inaccessible to those who most needed such instruction. Few farmers, few even of our country gentlemen "who live at home at ease," could be expected to pursue their researches in agricultural improvements through forty-seven octavo volumes, in which the English County Reports were comprised, and the thirty which contained those of Scotland, besides seven volumes more of communications from correspondents. It was necessary that the pith of this huge mass should be so concentrated as to be both accessible and intelligible to general