Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/439

 Joseph Henry Green [q. v.] of St. Thomas's Hospital. Partridge had fitted himself for this post many years previously by taking lessons in drawing from his brother John (1790–1872) [q. v.] the portrait-painter.

In the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, the premier medical society of England, Partridge served every grade. Elected a fellow in 1828, he was secretary 1832–6, a member of council 1837–1838, and again in 1861–2; vice-president 1847–8, president 1863–4.

In the autumn of 1862, at the request of Garibaldi's friends in England, he proceeded to Spezzia, to attend the general, who was then suffering from a severe wound in his right ankle, which he had received at Aspromonte. Partridge, who had had no experience of gunshot wounds, overlooked the presence of the bullet, which was afterwards detected by Professor Nélaton, and removed by Professor Zanetti. Partridge died on 25 March 1873.

Partridge was a ready and fluent lecturer, and sketched admirably on the blackboard. As a surgeon he was a nervous operator, but an admirable clinical teacher. He paid unusually close attention to the after treatment of the patients upon whom he had operated. He was fond of a jest, and it is still remembered of him that when a student asked him the name of the half-starved-looking horses that drew his carriage, he replied that the name of the one was longissimus dorsi, but that the other was the os innominatum.

A portrait of Partridge, drawn by George Richmond, was engraved by Francis Holl; and in the collection of medical portraits at the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society there is a lithograph by P. H. Maguire, dated 1845.

Partridge only published an article on ‘The Face’ in Todd and Bowman's ‘Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology,’ vol. ii. 1839, and a few contributions to the ‘Transactions’ of the medical societies. He wrote a copiously illustrated work on descriptive anatomy, but never printed it.

[Obituary notices in Medical Times and Gazette, 1873, i. 347–8; Lancet, 1873, i. 464; Proc. Royal Med. and Chir. Soc. 1873, p. 231; additional facts kindly supplied by Surgeon-general S. B. Partridge, a nephew, and by the late T. Whitaker Hulke, P.R.C.S. Engl., a former pupil of Professor Partridge.]  PARTRIDGE, SETH (1603–1686), mathematical writer, is probably identical with the Seth Partridge who died on 25 Feb. 1685–1686, aged 82, and was buried in the church at Hemel-Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where there is an inscription to his memory (, Lit. Anecd. ix. 507;, Hertfordshire, i. 160). He describes himself as a surveyor, but his time seems to have been mostly occupied in teaching various branches of mathematics, including ‘arithmetic, astronomy, land-measuring, gauging of vessels, trigonometry, navigation, and cosmography.’ For the use of his pupils he prepared some notes on ‘Napier's bones’ [see or ], which he published in 1648 under the title ‘Rabdologia, or the Art of numbering by Rods … with many Examples for the practice of the same, first invented by Lord Napier, Baron of Merchiston, and since explained and made useful for all sorts of men. By Seth Partridge, Surveyor and Practitioner in the Mathematicks,’ London, 12mo. It is dedicated to Dr. Wright; its object is to explain in a popular manner the use of ‘Napier's bones,’ and for this reason it was written in English, being the first book on logarithms in the vernacular. On 1 Aug. 1657 Partridge completed another mathematical work, entitled ‘The Description and Use of an Instrument called the Double Scale of Proportion;’ but it does not seem to have been published until 1672; other editions followed in 1685 and 1692, but these are, except for the title-pages, merely reprints. The book is dedicated to Sir Richard Combe, knt.

Partridge's son (1635–1703) and grandson (1675–1748), a citizen and goldsmith of London, both named Seth Partridge, were also buried in Hemel-Hempstead church.

[Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Maseres' Scriptores Logarithmici, vol. i. p. xl; Montucla's Hist. des Mathématiques, ii. 24; De Morgan's Arithmetical Books, pp. 42, 51; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 507; Cussans's Hertfordshire, i. 160; Allibone's Dict. of English and American Lit.]  PARVUS, JOHN (d. 1180). [See ]

 PARYS, WILLIAM (d. 1609), author, matriculated as a pensioner of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in June 1582, proceeded B.A. in 1585–6, and commenced M.A. in 1589. On 9 Jan. 1594–5 he was elected master of St. Olave's grammar school in Southwark, and held the post till his death in 1609. He left a widow and three children.

Parys has been conjectured to be the ‘W. P.’ who wrote or translated the following books: 1. ‘Foure great Lyers, striuing who shall win the Silver Whet-Stone; also, a Resolution to the Countriman, prouing it vtterly vnlawfull to buy or vse our yeerly prognostications, by W. P.,’ 8vo, London [1580?]. 2. ‘The most pleasaunt and de-