Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/286

 282 GREGORY. Harris informs us, that he saw him in Dublin about 1681, but cannot say how long he lived after that time. It has been too commonly the practice to regard Great reaks, as a designing impostor; and it is conjectured that St. Evremond intended his novel, “The Irish Pro phet,” in ridicule of him and of the people who submitted their diseases to his touch. This opinion, however, is certainly contradicted by the fact of his having distributed the whole of his income in supplying with necessaries those who applied to him for advice; which clearly evinces that he was rather a dupe than a designer. Nor can we altogether impute to imagination the whole of the cures performed by him, and of which, from the nature of the testimonials, there cannot exist the smallest doubt. His plan seems seems to have consisted entirely in gentle and long continued friction with the hand, a practice which is now known to be attended with the most salutary and beneficial effects in scrofulous tumours, contractions in the joints, and chronic rheumatism. And it is also well known, that in some others of the cases which he treated, the impression on the mind is alone sufficient to cure the complaint, particularly in epilepsy; of the influence of the mind over which, many curious and satisfactory instances might be related. GEORGE GREGORY, D.D. A divine, and man of science, was the son of a clergy man who had been educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and held the rectory of Edermine, and a prebend in the cathedral church of Ferns, in the county of Wexford. His father's family was originally from Scotland, and his mother was a native of Lancashire. Dr. Gregory was born April 14th, 1754, and his father dying in 1766, when he was only twelve years of age, h i s mother returned t o her native country, and settled i n Liverpool. Anxious t o confer o n her son the benefits o f the best education, she