Page:Harveian Oration for MDCCCXXXVIII; being a tribute of respect for the memory of the late James Hamilton, Sen. M.D (IA b30377353).pdf/11

11 Managers of the Royal Infirmary, one of the Ordinary Physicians. He was also appointed Physician to the Merchant Maiden Hospital, and the Trades’ Maiden Hospital. To the duties which thus devolved on him, he devoted himself with unwearied application and zeal. He never suffered himself to be immersed in speculation,—but as the surest basis of solid practical attainments, his observations of the phenomena of disease, and of the effects of the remedies employed, were made with great patience and discrimination, and without suffering his mind to be unduly biassed by any favourite system. He felt no ambition to be the founder of a school; and while he was on his guard against rash and adventurous innovation, his manly and independent mind was incapable of submitting, with implicit and servile deference, to the authority of any leader. As a collector of medical facts, he enjoyed the best opportunities of gaining correct information. In his extensive practice, particularly in hospitals, his attention was anxiously directed to the treatment of fever; which, from time immemorial, has been one of the most fatal of the diseases which infest this city, and which, during the early part of his practice, was repeatedly marked by a character of almost pestilential