hundred pounds, which we suspect barely supported his necessary

establishment and his charities.

He was a great friend to periodical works on medicine, and alive to all the improvements and discoveries which they promulgated. He also purchased all the new publications on medicine, which he arranged in his library according to their intrinsic value; and in the quack and puffing department were placed works on diabetes, watery head, disordered respiration, gout and rheumatism, the diseases of the abdominal viscera, disorders of digestion, &c. &c. from a set of contemptible physicians, who endeavour to persuade the public that they possess a superior knowledge of medicine; but whose publications, the doctor very properly considered in the same light as the advertisements of Dr. Solomon, and other nostrum venders. The former he termed advertisements for the sovereign fee; and the other for the sale of a sovereign remedy; the result of each of which was equally beneficial to the public.

By the death of Dr. Girdlestone the world has lost a man of science; the medical profession a brilliant ornament; and the poor, and, indeed, the rich, of Yarmouth and its vicinity, a most valuable friend. In consequence of the death of this physician, and of Dr. Rigby of Norwich, medicine, we are fearful, is reduced to a very low ebb in that county. Dr. Wright, Dr. Yellowly, and Dr. Evans of Norwich, have lately evinced much activity; but whether in pursuit of the loaves and fishes, or in the promotion of the science of medicine, time only can determine. A correspondent informs us, that Dr. Evans, who lately made a grand dash at practice in Worcester, for a short time looked towards Yarmouth; but, it seems, he thought the field was not sufficiently extensive for a man of his extraordinary talents and literary acquirements.

Doctor Reid. This gentleman, although he held the appointment of Physician to the Finsbury Dispensary for many years, and had been employed by Sir Richard Phillips to write Medical Reports for the Monthly Magazine, was little known in the metropolis as a practitioner. He studied medicine under the celebrated Dr. John Brown, and was an enthusiastic admirer of his doctrines, which he strictly followed in practice at the Dispensary, for about twenty years. Soon after he resigned this appointment he was afflicted with an affection of the bowels and head, which he treated according to the Brunonian system. Finding the stimulating treatment to aggravate rather than quiet the symptoms, he, for the first time, examined the opinions of Brown, and compared his system with that of Cullen, and after going carefully over his Book of Cases, which had occurred in his Dispensary practice, he became a great admirer of the theories of Dr. Cullen, and in his next "Medical Report," in the Monthly Magazine, he declared the doctrines of Dr. John Brown to be erroneous, and that long experience had satisfied him that more lives had been destroyed in this country by his theory than by the sword, or any epidemic. The Brunonian system was seductive from its novelty and simplicity, and so attached have many of his pupils remained to it, even during many years of extensive practice, that they have even brought forward the unfortunate results in its favour. We lately heard a disciple of Brown assert, when speaking of a case of fever, which had terminated fatally under the Brunonian treatment, that

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had brandy been more freely administered, she would probably have recovered; whereas, it was evident to other practitioners, that the result would have been very different, had an opposite mode of treatment been employed. The theory of Brown was first broached by the late Dr. Darwin of Derby, and to it he fell a victim, as well as Dr. Brown himself, and it is to be feared that many thousands of their patients were sacrificed to it.

The late Dr. Lubbock, of Norwich, was so blindly devoted to the Brunonian doctrines, that a few days previous to his death he observed, with an air of exultation, that he had never had occasion to order a patient to be bled during his long practice in Norfolk!! Abstraction of blood is surely of the first importance in cases of apoplexy and inflammation of the brain, lungs, and other internal organs, and by its early adoption, many thousand lives have doubtless been saved. Had then the patients, afflicted with either of these diseases, a fair chance of recovery under the care of an infatuated follower of Brown? "But conscience," observes Dr. Reid, in his Essay on Remedies, "feels little concern in cases of medicinal murder."!!!

The experience Dr. Reid had on himself, soon convinced him of the errors of his teacher, and his public acknowledgment of it, after following it so many years, was highly creditable to him as a physician and a Christian. Dr. Reid's style of writing was peculiarly his own. language was particularly flowery and verbose, and well calculated to please those members of the profession who study words more than matter. About twelve years ago he published a Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption, which was soon distributed among the retailers of butter and cheese. He afterwards published "Essays on Hypochondriasis and other Nervous Affections," which passed through two editions. This work, although it affords no information of any practical utility to the physician, is replete with interesting anecdotes. During the three last years of his life he suffered much from an affection of the rectum, which he attributed to the adoption of the Brunonian system of diet. The disease advancing to ulceration, terminated his existence. He was a decided enemy to regular and irregular quackery, and in his attendance on the sick, evinced ability, humanity and liberality. He was a great admirer of Christianity, and as he met his fate with the fortitude of a stoic, or rather as a practical Christian, we cannot, perhaps, conclude this article more properly than with the following extract from his Essay on the dread of Death, which nervous or hypochondriacal subjects generally entertain.

"Instruments have been invented by which the most remote objects of vision may be drawn so near to the eye, as to seem almost in contact with it. Something analogous to this power exists in the mental mechanism of many an hypochondriac, by means of which he approximates to himself events at the greatest distance either in prospect or in retrospect, either before or behind him in the road of life. This power contracts the interval of time, as a telescope does that of space. The most remote calamity which he anticipates, he feels, as if it were actually crushing him with its weight. From being in the habit of contemplating, with a morbid intensity, the close of his earthly career, he forestalls, almost every day of his life, the agonies of dissolution. The spectre of

human mortality is continually presenting itself before him in the full dimension of its horrors; so that it is no wonder if actual death be often occasioned by the appalling apparition. It is similar with regard to the past; although the substance of some great calamity has long gone by, its lingering shadow still continues to darken his path. Years make no impression upon the immutability of his feelings. The ideas of recollection are, in general, less lively than those which are produced by an immediate operation upon the senses. But with a certain class of hypochondriacs it is quite otherwise. The pictures drawn upon the fancy exhibit a more distinct and vivid colouring than belongs to the realities of life.

"Hypochondriasis is the more dreadful as a disease, from its being one of the tardiest ministers of death. It is a monster which delights rather in tormenting than in devouring its prey. Under the influence of this malady, the materials of the human fabric for the most part moulder

almost as imperceptibly as under the leisurely operation of time. We do not see the actual crumbling of the structure; although, after a certain interval, it may be observed to have lost a considerable portion of its bulk and solidity. The incrustation of melancholy, which gradually grows and thickens over the surface of the mind, seems in some measure to protect that part, and indirectly the whole of our frame, from the ravages of decay. The process of disease is often more to be dreaded than its mortal termination. In many cases, it is not the tomb, so much as the shadowy and thorny avenue which leads to it, that is the proper subject of horror and of awe. Natural are, for the most part, more cruel than what are called violent deaths. So far as suffering is concerned, who would not rather die of a dagger, than of a dropsy; or fall at once in the field of battle, with an instantaneously mortal wound, than be doomed to bear for years the lingering agonies of cancer, or gradually to yield to the slow underminings of consumption?

Let him who crawls, enamour'd of decay,

BYRON.

Cling to his couch, and sicken years away, Heave his thick breath, and shake his palsied head; Our's the fresh turf, and not the feverish bed. "Mac Ivor, the proper hero of Waverley, in contemplating his approaching execution with philosophical calmness, remarks, Nature has her tortures as well as art; and how happy should we think the man who escapes from the throes of a mortal and painful disorder in the space of a short half-hour! and this matter, spin it how they will, cannot last so long." The agonies with which dissolution is so generally accompanied, constitute one of the most melancholy mysteries in the providence of God. We ought to consider, however, as in some measure an explanation of it, that the bodily pain of the dying takes off from the edge of his mental apprehension, and that it is a mean, although a severe one, by which we are reconciled to the relinquishment of life, and our attention diverted from the horrors of that dark gulf into which we are about to plunge.

"Against the inordinate fear of death, one of the most effectual preservatives is regular and active occupation. In this way, poverty often precludes the access of evils greater than itself. The fear of death is felt most, where there is no intervening evil to obstruct the view of that

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ultimate calamity. He whose thoughts are absorbed in the means of living, can think little of the end of life.

"The inordinate fear of death, so far as the disease is purely mental, may be in a great measure counteracted by a juster estimate of the value of life, a state in which much is to be endured, and little, comparatively, to be enjoyed.' This correct judgment, when associated with the gay conscience' of a life that has been spent, upon the whole, honorably and usefully so far as it has advanced, will enable a man, at any stage of its progress, to look forward as well as backward, with no exulting or triumphant, but with a humble and quiet satisfaction.

"The Christian is still more highly privileged. His eye, happily invigorated by faith, is able to penetrate the thick mist which hangs over the tomb, and which, from our unassisted sight, intercepts any further prospect. The light of divine revelation is, after all, the only light which can effectually disperse the gloom of a sick chamber, and irradiate even the countenance of death.

"It is not the fear of death only, which is apt to overshadow the mind of the hypochondriac; he is often the slave of fear, which has no specific object. He trembles under the weight of indefinite apprehension. The terrors of the most gloomy superstition are scarcely more intolerable, than his state of vague inexplicable timidity. He has no resolution, no enterprise. He is imprudently cautious. The foresight of possible evil, shuts him out from the chance of probable advantage. In reference to a highly estimable person of a hypochondriacal cast, it was once remarked by an ingenious young lady, that if he had built a ship, he would not have the courage to launch it.' An excess of circumspection may be worse even than rashness. A man has been often immortalized by an act of lucky indiscretion. A physician of nervous pusillanimity, rather than incur the risk of being thought to kill one of his patients, would let many of them die. He would not do any thing that would seem directly to destroy life; but he would often refrain from doing that which was absolutely necessary to its preservation, as if murders from omission left no stain upon the character, and inflicted no wound upon the conscience."

Dr. Jukes.-This eminent physician died on the 10th of November, 1821, at Ispahan, in Persia, of a bilious fever. He had been a surgeon on the Bombay establishment, and at the time of his death held the appointment of Political Agent at Keshm, and had been employed on a special mission to the Court of Persia. He was born at Cound, in the county of Salop, on the 17th of December, 1774. In 1804 he accompanied Mr. Ministy to Jehran, and the following year attended the Persian Ambassador, Mahomed Nubee Kan, to Calcutta, and more recently the embassies of Sir Harford Jones, and Sir John Malcolm, to the Court of Persia.

"In 1811 he returned to his native country, where, during his stay, he cultivated an acquaintance with some of the most distinguished philosophers of the age, and sought instruction in the schools of science with the ardour and emulation of a youthful student.

"At the latter end of December, 1814, he again departed for Bombay, where he resumed his professional duties, and had obtained the rank of superintending surgeon, when he was deputed, in 1819, on a mission to

the Iman of Muscat, preparatory to the expedition against the Joasmee pirates; and the satisfactory manner in which he fulfilled that trust, probably led to the important employment of envoy from the government of Bombay to the court of Persia.

"The event which it has been our painful duty to notice, has deprived Dr. Jukes of a part of that reputation which he must have acquired had he accomplished all the objects of his mission. The arrangements, however, which he effected with the Government of Shirauz (in which city he was a great part of the time that the cholera morbus raged therein with such terrific violence) terminated successfully; and had not his zeal prompted him to pursue his journey towards the capital, for the confirmation of his negociations, through difficulties and fatigues which his constitution was unequal to sustain, there can be little doubt that he would have brought them to a conclusion most honourable to himself and advantageous to the public interest.

"The professional qualifications possessed by Dr. Jukes were of the highest order. Few men took to our Eastern dominions a more complete knowledge of the science in all its branches, and none have been more indefatigable in submitting that knowledge to the test of experience, or more assiduous in marking the improvements that have from time to time been effected by the exertions of others. But his manner whilst in attendance on the sick was quite characteristic, and could scarcely be excelled. He was scrupulously minute in his inquiries, unsparing of his personal exertions, bold and decisive in his practice; and, with these qualities, combined so much kindness and gentleness, and such tender solicitude to relieve the sufferings of his patients, and dispel all unnecessary alarm, that he at once secured the confidence and affection of all who experienced or witnessed his admirable arrangemeut. Nor was the exercise of his profession limited to those whom public duty had placed under his charge-it had in fact no limits but those which time and his own state of health imperiously prescribed. Prompted partly by benevolence, and partly by a desire to improve his knowledge by experience, he anxiously sought opportunities of exercising his talents, regardless of the difficulties that are inseparable from medical practice among a prejudiced and slothful people.

"In scientific information he was distinguished even amongst the members of a profession by which it is so generally cultivated. The sciences of chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and botany, all fell within the range of his acquirements; and if he did not attain eminence in all, he was so patient in his researches, so methodical in his habits, and so unreserved and faithful in his communications, that he was an invaluable correspondent of those philosophers who have had more leisure and fewer objects of research, and by whom his death cannot fail to be considered as a public misfortune.

"He possessed also a refined taste in poetry, music, and the fine arts; and had applied himself with some success to each-in landscape drawing more particularly he displayed a considerable genius, and frequently devoted a part of his leisure hours to the exercise of that accomplishment

"As a member of society, he was characterized by a fine sense of honour, and a manly spirit of independence; by a heart full of charity,