Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/569

 some years ago; notes on the early dramatists of England. These shew the activity of his mind, of which, however, as well as of his perseverance, his dispensary and hospital case-books are the principal monuments. His private case-book is continued to the day before-his last illness; and his manuscript notes of morbid anatomy terminate with a note of the case, the examination of which proved fatal to him, made on his return from the hospital, when he had no suspicion that he had that day imbibed the seeds of death, and that, after that day, he would never resume his active labours more.

About seven years before his death, he began to pay great attention to the science of botany, and, with his characteristic energy, collected numerous plants, consulted every author within his reach, provided himself with one of Dollond's microscopes, and devoted himself to the pursuit with as much ardour as if it had been his chief occupation. This was, in fact, his relaxation. He subsequently gave a course of lectures on the subject, to the medical students at Birmingham, of which the introductory lecture is published in the 8th number of the Midland Medical and Surgical Reporter. He found time, also, to make himself very accurately acquainted with the past revolutions of medical science, and wrote a history of medicine for the Society of Useful Knowledge, which will, in a short time, be published.

In the progress or the origin of several of the public institutions of Birmingham, he took an active share, often encountering opposition, but generally overcoming it. He laboured, soon after his appointment