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EULOGIUM
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WILLIAM SHIPPEN, M. D.
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EXTRACT
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ON
WILLIAM SHIPPEN, M. D.
DELIVERED BY
CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.
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MEDICAL COLLEGE.

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PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR THE PUBLISHER.
1818. 
J. H. Cunningham, printer, 66, Dock-street. 
EULOGItJM,  #c.
GENTLEMEN,
   TO commemorate the virtues, to celebrate the achieve-
ments, and thus perpetuate the fame of the illustrious dead,
has been the business of the poet,  the painter, the sculp-
tor, and the orator, in every  country and  in  every  age.
Neither the rigours of a polar, nor the fervours of a tropi-
cal sky ; neither the rude insensibility of barbarism, nor the
busy dissipation of polished life, can deter the mind from
this  pious employment.
   The motives by which mankind are induced to  engage
in it, are confessedly liberal and elevated in their nature—
in their result they are eminently pleasing and important.
In point of universality and force, they are,  perhaps, next
to those which lead the mind  to the worship of a God.  In
either case, an intermingled sentiment of gratitude and pi-
ety constitutes a leading principle  of action—in either case
there is manifested a grateful and praiseworthy recollection
of benefits received.
   With  sentiments and  recollections not  dissimilar to
these,  are we now assembled to mingle our sorrows over
the  ashes of a mortal—with praises such as may become
 the  occasion,  and such as truth may not disavow,  are we
 called on to honour the memory of a benefactor. 
6
   Previously to my attempting to portray the character,
 and to unfold to you a view of the  labours and achieve-
 ments of our distinguished countryman, suffer me to pre-
 mise a single reflection.   If many youths have been  fired
 with enthusiasm and urged to deeds of greatness and glo-
 ry, by a recital  of the lives of the destroyers of nations;
 how much  more does it become you to catch the spark
 of a generous emulation from the story of him who was
 one of the benefactors of the human race ?
   Dr. Shippen was descended, on his mother's side, from
 a family of wealth and distinction, which had been attach-
 ed to the person and had followed the fortunes of the il-
 lustrious founder of the state of Pennsylvania. By his father
 he was connected with those pious and  intrepid pilgrims,
 who, flying from fanaticism and persecution in their native
 country, had sought an asylum for liberty of conscience and
 the rights of devotion, in the wilds of New England.
   He was born in October, 1733, in the city  of Philadel-
 phia ; of which, Joseph  Shippen, his grandfather, having
 emigrated from Massachusetts, on a special invitation from
 William Penn,  had been the first mayor.
   Of the first years of the life of young Shippen, nothing
 particular is at present recollected. Nor is this circumstance
 to be regarded as a circumstance of regret.   The history of
 childhood is but rarely instructive.  It is seldom that the in-
 fant gives any well-founded presage of the  future character
 of the individual.  As the acorn holds buried in its bosom
 the embryo-oak, destined  to be the future pride of the
' forest, and a still smaller seed encloses the more  gigantic
 adansonia, so in the early morning of life, the rudiments of
 human greatness are generally concealed beneath the spor-
 tiye habits of the child.   Our first acquaintance with our
 young  philosopher, commences at the West-Nottingham 
7
 grammar school, then under the direction of the Rev. Dr.
 Finley.   That eminent and pious  divine, no less distin-
 guished for his talents and learning, than for his facility and
 excellence  in the instruction of youth, and in rendering
 them enamoured of academic studies, was afterwards pre-
 sident of Princeton College.  Under a teacher so able and
 enlightened, genius could neither lie dormant nor pass un-
 noticed.  Accordingly, the talents of our young  student,
 which if  not of the first, were unquestionably of an order
 bordering on the first, rapidly unfolding themselves under
 such auspicious circumstances, soon raised their possessor
 to  honourable  distinction among the most favoured pupils
 of the institution.   Nor did his conspicuous standing with
 the preceptor excite the jealousy, or deprive him of the af-
 fections of his fellow-students.   So open was his heart, so
 frank his disposition, so mild his temper, and so fascinating
 his manners, that, whatever sentiments  of emulation he
 might awaken in the besoms of his companions, he could
 never become the object of their envy or dislike.
  Having passed  with unusual rapidity and the  most flat-
 tering marks of applause, through his preparatory  studies,
 our pupil was removed from the Nottingham grammar
 school to the College of New Jersey, which was at that
 time established in the village of Newark.
  Here  he was again fortunate,  in being placed  under the
tuition of  a very able and accomplished teacher—an enthu-
siast in learning, whose example was no less adapted to fire
the  youthful mind with the love of letters, than his instruc-
tions were calculated to enrich it with knowledge.    This
teacher was the Rev. Aaron Burr, father to him of the same
name, who has made  so distinguished a figure in the annals
of our country.   On the emulous disposition and aspiring
genius of the youthful  Shippen, opportunities so  congenial 
8
and excellent, could not fail of producing the most happy
and brilliant effects.   It was, accordingly, while pursuing
his studies in this institution, that the rapid development of
his talents, marked with unusual lustre for his years, began
to attract the notice of the public, and pointed him out to
the discerning eye, as a youth born to no common destinies.
   Though distinguished in every branch of academical at-
tainment to which he turned his attention,  it was not his
lotto acquire in each  of them the same degree of eminence.
His taste and the native bent of his genius, led him more par-
ticularly to the cultivation of classical learning, polite liter-
ature, and the graces of  oratory.   In these departments,
such was, in a short time his acknowledged pre-eminence,
that, when  prizes and honours were proposed as the re-
wards of excellence in them, he was more than once suf-
ferred to bear them off without competition.—The better
to impart to you some idea of the character and  effect of
his juvenile elocution, let me solicit your attention to the
following anecdote, the truth of which rests on indubitable
testimony.—When about to be admitted to the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, in the  College of New Jersey, he had
conferred on him the honour of preparing and delivering a      >
public oration, in the Latin tongue.  On the day  of  com-
mencement,  the audience was extensive,  respectable and
enlightened   But a small part of them, however, had re-
ceived the advantages of a liberal education.    In this se-
lect number was the  celebrated Dr. Whitfield, one of the
most  accomplished orators of modern times.  Nor were
his taste and judgment inferior to his excellence in prac-
tical eloquence.   When Mr.  Shippen appeared on the
stage, the beauty of his countenance, which has rarely been
surpassed, the elegance of his person, the ease and grace-
fulness of his whole deportment, attracted the eye of every 
9
beholder,  and excited a lively interest in  his favour.  But
he had not proceeded many minutes in his  address, when
his personal  accomplishments  were lost in the superior
charms of his eloquence.   While he continued to speak, a
power of fascination seemed to issue from his tongue,  ex-
erting over the audience  an unlimited control.   Not an
idle whisper escaped from  the lips, nor an inattentive glance
from  the  eye of the assembled multitude.  Though the
language of the speaker was  strange and unintelligible to
most who heard him, his manner was so perfectly in unison
with  nature, that  it soon found its way to the bosom of
every one. Seldom has eloquence made a more impressive
display  of its power over  the softer passions of the mind.
Notwithstandingthe disadvantage under which the orator la-
boured, from speaking in an unknown tongue, yet such was
the pathos which marked his delivery, that he retired from
the stage, with his audience in tears.  Dr. Whitfield, in par-
ticular,  set no bounds to the terms in which he  expressed
his admiration and delight.   He even declared in the en-
thusiasm of the moment,  that such a specimen  of  oratory
would not have done dishonour to the  Roman  rostrum in
the proud days of Hortensius and Cicero.   Though an en-
comium so exalted, is not to be considered as correct crit-
icism, it could have been extorted only by uncommon ex-
cellence.   The occasion  afforded a very  ha^py  presage of
the success and celebrity which awaited the orator, in the
professorship to which he  was afterwards  called.
   Having finished his academical studies, a profession for
life was  now to be chosen. Nor did he hesitate or balance
in making a choice.   His inclination led him, by a strong
predilection, to that of medicine : and he accordingly com-
menced his studies under the direction of his father,  who
was an  eminent practitioner  in the city of Philadelphia.
                          B 
10
 Here a new, rich and delightful field of knowledge opened
 to the view of our young philosopher.   Having been hith-
 erto conversant chiefly with the productions of men, he was
 now  introduced  to an acquaintance with the more august
 and diversified works of nature.  In these  he  found a ne-
 ver-failing source of pleasure and instruction ; for they were
 in unison with his taste, and peculiarly suited the texture
 of his mind.
   Having already availed himself of every  source of medi-
 cal information to which he could have access in his native
 land, young Shippen  embarked for Europe, where oppor-
 tunities of instruction  awaited him, better suited to his
 genius and ambition.  Arrived in a country  which had
 long  been considered as the  paradise of science, he put
 himself successively  under  the direction of some of the
 most distinguished medical teachers and  practitioners of
 the age.    Among these are to be  reckoned, in  particular,
 Hunter,  Monro,  Fothergill,  and  Boerhaave;  characters
 whose fame will survive, and  whose works  will  be con-
 sulted and admired,  as  long as medicine  shall be practi-
 sed as an art,  or cultivated as a science.   Nor did these
luminaries in science, regard their young American as a
common pupil.   Finding his moral worth as unexception-
able, and his social virtues as engaging, as his intellect was
enlightened ai^d his manners refined, they soon took him to
their bosoms, some of them  even with parental tenderness,
and opened to him the resources of their private friendship.
This was  more especially the case with Dr. William Hun-
ter,* of London, in whose  family he resided  for  several
years, and whose paternal cares and luminous  instructions
  * About this period he married, and took with him to Edinburgh, Miss LEE,
daughter of Governor Lee, of Virginia, by whom he h.ui nine children. 
11
 he never ceased to remember with the  gratitude of a son,
 and to dwell on with sensations of peculiar delight.
   Although from the quickness of his perceptions, the live-
 liness of his imagination, and the whole texture and charac-
 ter of his mind, young Shippen had a peculiar fitness for spec-
 ulative disquisitions, yet from  his early years he was much
 more attached to demonstration, than to theory.  This truth
 was clearly illustrated throughout the course of his profes-
 sional studies.   Hence though possessed of an ample stock
 of knowledge, in  every department of medical science,
 he was  more  particularly devoted to the  demonstrative
 branches of anatomy and surgery.  It was, accordingly, in
 these branches, that his labours were most indefatigable,
 and his  attainments most conspicuous, during his attend-
 ance on the medical schools and hospitals of Europe.
   While thus engaged  in the pursuit of science abroad,  he
 was neither unmindful nor regardless of the prosperity and
 elevation of his native country.  The rising  greatness  of
 the (then) colonies of North America,  imparted to him a
 pleasure, and inspired him with a high-minded and lauda-
 ble pride, which none but the philanthropist and patriot can
 feel.  He dwelt with enthusiasm on the time when the land
 of his nativity  should become the seat of those  sciences
 which had  hitherto flourished only in the old world.  Nor
 did his ardour and enterprize suffer him to remain a mere
 passive expectant of events which as yet lay buried in the
 bosom of futurity.   They combined with a laudable am-
 bition and a sense of duty, in urging him to  take  an active
 and distinguished part in calling those important events in-
 to existence.  He,  accordingly,  while only  a medical stu-
dent in the old world, conceived the design, and, in part,
digested  and matured the plan  of establishing a school  of
medicine in the new.'  Nor did this idea, exalted in itself, 
12
and pregnant with incalculable advantages to his beloved
country, lie inoperate  in  a  mind so  aspiring and bent on
schemes of public utility.  Having imparted his views to a
young medical friend, who, like himself, had  visited  Lon-
don, in pursuitof professional knowledge, and procured from
that gentleman a promise of co-operation, he  continued to
labour with  increased assiduity, the better to  qualify him-
self for his proposed  undertaking.   It is thus, that with
minds rich in expedients and formed for perseverance, the
conception of a favourite enterprize ensures,  for the  most
part, the means of execution.  Having spent  several  years
in the lap  of the sciences abroad, and graduated, with great
reputation, in the University of Edinburgh,  Dr. Shippen
returned to America in the summer of the year 1762. On
his arrival in Philadelphia,  which was destined to be the
theatre of  his future eminence, he met with a  reception the
most grateful and flattering.  His eulogy, while abroad, hav-
ing been frequently pronounced by travellers from Europe,
his fellow-citizens had been anxious  to hail, with a distin-
guished welcome, the return of one who had done signal
honour to his  native  country.  A  reception so  strongly
marked by  affection  and respect, was  regarded by Dr.
Shippen as a pledge of patronage and success in the walks
of his profession.   Nor did his anticipations  exceed what
his experience realized.   He had been  but  a  very  short
time in business, when he attained a  very elevated rank of
practical eminence.   This was more  particularly the case
in the practice of surgery, a branch of his profession which
he still continued most zealously to  cultivate.   Hence in
the very morning of his professional career, he had the hon-
our of being consulted in difficult cases by the oldest and
ablest of his surgical  brethren.  But it did not  belone to
the aspiring mind, nor did it comport with the comprehen- 
13
sive and patriotic views of Shippen, to rest satisfied with the
mere practice of the healing art.   His aim was more ex-
alted, and his object more honourable to himself, and more
extensively useful to his country.  It has been already stated
to you, that the establishment of a medical school in Phila-
delphia,  had long been  with  him a favourite project.  He
now felt himself on the eve of  attempting its accomplish-
ment, aided by  the ripened preparations of several years.
Still, however,  there were  difficulties  to be  encountered.
The enterprize, arduous in itself, was rendered abundantly
more so, in consideration of its novelty: for as yet the voice
of a public lecturer in medicine had never been heard in the
western world.   In order, therefore, to test the practicability
of the measure, and to pave the  way for a more regular and
extensive establishment, he determined to embark in the
undertaking himself, by delivering in a private capacity,
a course of lectures on anatomy  and surgery.   This he
did in the  winter of 1762-3, being the first winter after his
return from his  studies and travels in Europe.
   Experiencing something of the fate  of most new adven-
turers in science,  Dr.  Shippen lectured, during  the first
winter,  to a  very  limited class.  But during his  second,
the case was different.   The richness and perspicuity of his
instructions, the elegance of his  delivery, and the consequent
increase of his reputation, had drawn together such a num-
ber of pupils, that he had some difficulty in  procuring an
apartment  sufficiently large for their accommodation.
   An experiment thus made by a solitary individual, prov-
ing successful beyond expectation, convinced the  trustees
of  the University of Pennsylvania, that the establishing a
school of medicine was a practicable enterprize.   Arrange-
ments for this purpose were accordingly made, and on the
17th of  September, 1765, Dr. Shippen was  unanimously 
14
elected Professor of anatomy and surgery.  With what fide-
lity and effect he devoted himself to the duties of his new
appointment, the unexampled  growth of the school, and
the rapid diffusion of medical  knowledge throughout the
new world, will amply testify.
   Having beheld Dr. Shippen, seated in a professor's chair,
it will not be uninteresting to you to dwell for a moment
on his rich and rare assemblage of qualifications for doing
justice to that elevated and important station.  Possessed
of a lofty stature, and an open,  animated, and manly coun-
tenance, his  personal appearance was dignified and  com-
manding.  Nor did this constitute the whole amount of
the advantages of his exterior. In addition to an impos-
ing figure, and a  graceful deportment, he was deservedly
ranked among the handsomest  of men.  To a strong, clear
and melodious voice,  he added a distinct articulation, and
an utterance capable of great modulation.  In the qualifi-
cations of his mind, nature had been  no less bounteous to
him than in those of his person.   His perception was quick,
his memory  retentive, his understanding vigorous, and his
imagination  fruitful and inventive.  Nor had culture been
wanting in the improvement of those powers  which nature
had bestowed with so liberal a  hand.
   His powers and accomplishments  as a public speaker,
were peculiarly eminent.  Those, who  from their  atten-
dance on the medical schools of Europe, were qualified to
decide, pronounced him the most  eloquent lecturer of the
age.  In its stile and character his eloquence was original.
It did not breathe the fervour of the pulpit;  it had not the
point and argumentative keenness  of the forum ; nor did it
rise to the commanding declamation, calculated to  rouse
yet govern a popular assembly.   It might have been em-
phatically denominated the eloquence of science.  Its object 
15
 was the understanding, rather than the passions;  its aim
 demonstration, rather than persuasion.   It was calm, dig-
 nified and luminous; flowing with  the majesty of a spa-
 cious stream, sweeping unbroken through a level country ;
 not hurrying along  with the irregular force and wild im-
 petuosity of a mountain torrent.   It  consisted in a rich and
 perspicuous arrangement of facts, accompanied by fair and
 forcible inductions,  clothed in choice and appropriate lan-
 guage, and delivered in a manner the  most graceful and
 impressive.
   As a public teacher, Dr.  Shippen was  coscientiously
 scrupulous with regard to his doctrines.   He inculcated
 nothing which he did not firmly believe; and his belief was
 generally founded on the basis of facts.   Though not hos-
 tile to rational theories in medicine, he never indulged him-
 self from  his  chair,  in visionary speculations.  Preferring
 ignorance itself to error, and deeming candour more hon-
 ourable than a false  pretension to knowledge, he withheld
 his sanction from doubtful opinions, and in no instance at-
 tempted to answer or silence the enquiries of others, with
 what he did not himself completely understand.  Hence, his
 doctrines, though apparently  less ingenious, and perhaps
 less amusing to his pupils than they might have been ren-
 dered  byr the wild vagaries of sportive imagination, were
 generally  solid, and never dangerously  seductive  of the
 minds of  youth.   They were, for the most part, such as
 were capable of an immediate  application to practice.
   So rare an assemblage of talents and acquirements, di-
 rected in  their application by wisdom and industry,  added
daily to the reputation, as well of their possessor, as of the
 school of medicine  in which  they  were displayed.   But
 while this school was yet in its infancy, an event occurred,
of a character so portentous, and an  aspect  so formidable, 
16
   as to shake to their centre, and for a time, even to threaten
   to annihilate all the establishments of our country, whether
   civil or literary.  This event was the American revolution,
   which commenced in the year 1774. During a struggle so
   eventful and glorious, it  was not to  be expected that  the
   talents of Shippen would remain unemployed.  Nor was it
   long before they were called  into action.  No sooner had
   the nation appealed to the sword, and taken the field in  de-
   fence of liberty, than great individual sufferings, as well as
   great losses to the public service,  were sustained, from  the
   want of arrangement and economy in the public hospitals.
   The disorder which prevailed in the management  of those
   institutions, was found to be more destructive than the arms
   of the enemy.   To remedy this great and threatening evil,
   it became necessary to place these abodes of wretchedness
   under the superintendence of a medical character  compe-
   tent to  the trust—a character in  whose talents,  integrity,
   patriotism and humanity, a  confidence  unlimited  might
   safely be reposed.  Such a character was immediately found
   in the professor of anatomy and surgery, and Dr.  Shippen
   was accordingly appointed Director General  of the military
   Hospitals of the United States.  This appointment, arduous
   in itself, even under the most favourable circumstances, was
   rendered trebly so by the novelty  of the establishment, and
   the alarming want  of resources necessarily incidental to an
   infant country.  Unintimidated, however, by  the difficul-
   ties which presented themselves, the professor entered on
   the duties of his appointment, with a promptitude and zeal
   corresponding to the exigency of the times, and the magni-
   tude of the undertaking.  The ability and faithfulness with
   which  he acquitted himself in this distinguished trust, are
   best attested by the reformation of abuses, and the amelio-
*   ration of the general state of the hospitals, which soon sue- 
17
ceeded the commencement of his directorship. If some evils
still remained in this  department—if some inconvenience
and distress were still experienced by the sick and wound-
ed, they were attributable to the faults of  subordinate of-
ficers, and to the insurmountable difficulties of the times,
rather than to neglect  or want of abilities  in the director
general.
   He continued in office till our struggle for independence
had terminated in victory.  On the achievement of that glo-
rious event, he  surrendered up his commission, into  the
hands by which it had been conferred,  receiving for his ser-
vices, the thanks of Congress, and a letter expressive of his
approbation from the commander in chief of the American
army.  As an evidence of the sincerity and continuance of
his approbation, it is worthy of remark, that when General
Washington afterwards resided  in Philadelphia, as Presi-
dent of the United States, Dr. Shippen was employed as
physician to his family.
   The sanguinary operations of war, having at  length giv-
en place to the mild  and restorative influence of peace,  the
professor returned with promptitude and joy to his long de-
serted station in the University of Pennsylvania.—We now
behold him in the very zenith of his fame.—The  distin-
guished reputation which had been recently acquired by
the Director General of the military Hospitals, added now
a fresh lustre to the character and labours of  the  public
teacher.  Under these circumstances, his lectures could not
fail to become more interesting, instructive and popular.
Aided by the talents and zeal of his professional colleagues,
he soon succeeded in renderingthe Medical School of Penn-
sylvania, an  institution of high  and just celebrity.   The
accomplishment of this event was to him a source of pecu-
liar gratification.  From motives of patriotism,  he rejoiced
                           c 
18
that his country had become  doubly independent.   Inde-
pendent as a political community, and  independent as a
nursery of medical science.  No longer  forced, in pursuit
of instruction, to brave the dangers of the  ocean, and the
still greater dangers of European luxury  and viee ; he now
saw the youth of the United  States, amply disciplined in
the knowledge  of the healing art, without a separation from
their native soil.
   Having  traced  the professor's footsteps  through  the
sprightly morning and the bright meridian of life,  it re-
mains that we accompany him through its sober  evening.
For we have now arrived at that period, when, by a decree
of nature, the orb of genius begins to  descend.  Seldom,
however,  has this orb been shorn, in its  descent,  of  fewer
of its beams, than  it was in the case of the venerable de-
ceased.
   When the professor began to feel, with increasing  force,
the daily encroachments of that inaptitude for action which
is the inevitable lot of advanced  age, he became anxious
that its inconveniences should be exclusively his own.   In
particular, he determined that these inconveniences should
neither  mar the fortunes,  nor affect the character  of the
Medical School, which had so long been the object  of his
paternal care and solicitude.  To carry into effect this lib-
eral purpose, he requested of the trustees of the institution,
the appointment of an adjunct professor of anatomy and
surgery, who might share  with him in the labours and hon-
ours of the chair.   The adoption of this measure afforded a
grateful and welcome relief to his declining faculties.  Still,
however, it did not serve  him as  a  pretext for suddenly
abandoning to his colleague the duties of  his professorship.
   For many years he not only sanctioned,  by  his constant
presence,  the lectures upon anatomy and surgery, but still 
19
 continued to deliver a principal part of them himself.  Nor
 did he ever entirely abandon the  theatre of his usefulness
 and his fame.  It was but a few months before his death,
 that in the presence of a numerous and  admiring class, he
 made an  impressive display of that evergreen  eloquence
 which flourished in freshness amid  the winter of age.*
    Several years previous to this period,  Dr. Shippen  find-
 ing himself after the decease of his father, in affluent cir-
 cumstances, had determined to relinquish entirely the  prac-
 tice  of a  profession which  had become too  laborious for
 his growing infirmities. He had, accordingly, provided for
 himself a  retreat in the  country,  where, amid the  elegant
 leisure of the philosopher,  he passed his  summers in re-
 tirement.  Here, abstracted from the noise and bustle of the
 world, he devoted  much of his time to the  study of the
 scriptures.   It was while retired within  the bosom of this
 tranquil retreat, and earnestly engaged in this holy employ-
 ment, that he received his last dread summons from above.
 To this summons, (afterhaving long sustained  with patience
 and fortitude the ravages of a lingering disease,)  he yield-
 ed, with all the  calmness which resignation can bestow, a
 willing obedience, on the  llth of July,  1808.  Thus ex-
 pired,  in the seventy-fifth year of his age,  one of the  most
 distinguished medical teachers of the age, and the father of
 scholastic medicine in the United States.
   But if Shippen was distinguished in his  professional and
 public character, he was no  less amiable and accomplished

  * This lecture was the first delivered in that new Medical College, whose
 architectural beauties do such honour to the genius of Mr. Latrobe. In retiring
 from it he made this observation to his family ; I am so much delighted with the
 prosperity of the institution, that, with the reverence due to the sacredness of the
 quotation, I might almost say with the venerable Simeon, " Now, Lord, lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace, since mine eyes have seen" the completion of
all my labours for the benefit of the Medical School. 
20
 in private life. Nor can it be either unpleasing or uninstruc-
 tive, to pause for a moment,  and take a last view of him in
 that less splendid, but more  endearing  relation.  To per-
 sonal honour and unspotted  integrity, he added the softer
 virtues of benevolence and humanity.* Possessed of a warm
 and susceptible heart, connected with sincerity and stabil-
 ity of character, his attachments were strong, his friendships
 were durable. As a companion, the warmth of his heart, the
 frankness of his disposition, the mildness of his temper, and
 the polished and  conciliating style of his manners, secured
 the affections of all who approached him. Nor is it unwor-
 thy of the present occasion to remark, that when seated at
 the festive board, and amidst that hospitality for which his
 house  was always distinguished, the sprightliness of his wit,
 and the  graces of his conversation, gave a zest to the en-
joyments of the convivial circle.
   Such were the talents and such the acquirements,  such
 the life and  such  the death of him, whose character I have
 endeavoured to commemorate.  A character how varied,
 how rich, and elevated !  An  attempt to  portray it how fee-
 ble and ineffectual!  Could I  have availed myself of the de-
 scriptive eloquence of the deceased;  could I have caught
 but a remnant of his  mantle  as he ascended the heavens,
 then would  I have delineated him in the colours of truth,
 then would  I have presented you with  a living likeness of
 my great original. But, however unsuccessful has been  the
 present humble effort, the case  is still within thelimitsof hope.
 Some  future attempt, commenced under happier auspices,
 and conducted by abilities more competent to the undertak-
 ing, will yet do justice to the memory of our medical father.

  * In life  and  in death he was a benefactor to the poor, whom he attended
 when sick, without fee or reward ; and left many valuable bequests to the poor
 and unfortunate. 
 
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Ned . Hist,
    WZ.
   <JL70


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