Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/290

 dissected the venous supply of the corpora striata more exactly than Willis, and demonstrated from observation in the engorged brains of men who had been hanged, the lymph vessels of which only one had been mentioned by Anthony Nuck in 1692. He was also the first to describe and name the circular sinus. His is the first English description of a sarcoma or new growth of the pineal gland (Anatomy, p. 83). He attacks the use of imagination in scientific writings, and gives anatomical reasons for doubting whether the soul is more seated in the brain than in the body at large. The figures which illustrate the book were drawn by (1666–1709) [q. v.] the surgeon. A Latin translation was published at Leyden in 1725 by Langerak. On its title-page Ridley is erroneously named Henry, a mistake due to the fact that in his own book his initial only appears. In 1703 Tonson published for him a volume, entitled ‘Observationes quædam Medico-practicæ et Physiologicæ,’ which shows him to have been as good a clinical observer as he was an anatomist. The observations, some of which are accompanied by accounts of autopsies, are more than thirty in number. The most interesting is that on hydrophobia in an English groom who accompanied his master to Ryswick in October 1697, when the peace was being concluded, and was there bitten by a Danish dog. Symptoms of hydrophobia developed on 11 Dec., and it was observed that in the convulsions his head was generally turned towards the wound, while just before his death difficulty of swallowing ceased and he took a large quantity of toast soaked in beer. Ridley died in April 1708, and was buried in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 490; Garth's Dispensary, canto v.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Works.] 

RIDLEY, JAMES (1736–1765), author of ‘Tales of the Genii,’ eldest son of [q. v.], was born at Poplar in 1736, and was baptised at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, on 18 Feb. in that year. He was educated at Winchester School, being elected scholar in 1749, and matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 25 May 1754, but soon afterwards migrated to New College, whence he graduated B.A. in 1760. He held a fellowship at New College from 1755 to 1762. Having taken orders, he obtained a chaplaincy in the East India Company's service, but he relinquished this post to become chaplain to a marching regiment, and was present at the capture of Belleisle in June 1761. Owing to the imperfect commissariat arrangements, the troops suffered greatly from dysentery. Ridley himself was confined for some weeks in a hospital at Palais on the island, and his general health was undermined. Soon after his return (his first signature in the Vestry Book appears on 12 April 1762) he obtained the reversion of his father's living at Romford in Essex, where he died prematurely in 1765. His death is recorded in the Romford register of burials 1 March, from which it might be presumed that he was buried at Romford; but Lysons expressly states that he died on 24 Feb. and was buried at Poplar in the chapel cemetery. By his wife Ann he had three children, James John (baptised at Romford on 16 April 1763), Ann (b. 1764), and Mary Judith (b. 1765).

Ridley is chiefly remembered as author of ‘The Tales of the Genii, or the delightful Lessons of Horan, the son of Asmar. Faithfully translated from the Persian Manuscript, and compared with the French and Spanish editions published at Paris and Madrid, by Sir Charles Morell’ (originally issued in shilling parts, and reprinted London, 1764, 2 vols. 8vo). The work purports to be by ‘Sir Charles Morell, at one time ambassador from the British settlements in India to the Great Mogul,’ and to be a literal translation from a book held in great estimation at Ispahan and at Constantinople. The ‘Tales,’ however, are entirely Ridley's own; the stories are good in themselves; they are interspersed with some satire upon the professions of so-called Christians; and, for the rest, are skilfully modelled upon the ‘Arabian Nights,’ which had been first translated into a European tongue (French) by Antoine Galland, and concurrently rendered into English, 1704–1717. Ridley's first edition, illustrated by some well-executed engravings, was dedicated to George, prince of Wales. A second edition appeared in 1780, and succeeding editions in 1794, 1800, 1805, 1814, 1849, and 1861. A French translation appeared in 1766, another in ‘Le Cabinet des Feés’ in 1786, and a German translation at Leipzig in 1765–6, 8vo. The two English editions last named were selected, ‘revised, purified, and remodelled,’ ‘with a view of developing a religious moral,’ by, who may have been a sounder moralist than Ridley, but was far inferior as a story-teller. [q. v.], an old family friend, was portrayed in the ‘Tales’ as ‘Phesoi Ecneps’ (his name read backwards), the Dervise of the Groves. Their popularity among children outlasted the eighteenth century, and is attested by the infantine tragedy called ‘Misnar,’ which