FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON, AND OF THE SOCIETE DE MÉDECINE, PARIS. London : PRINTED BY JOHN NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET; AND SOLD BY LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND CALLOW AND WILSON, PRINCES STREET, SOHO. 1824. 272 PREFACE. THE following pages owe their origin to a collection of Professional Portraits, the nucleus of which was a set of prints, given to the author ten years ago, by his excellent friend Mr. Fauntleroy, of Berners Street, and which, from that period, has been a source of amusement, by furnishing a desultory occupation for his pencil, as well as for his pen, at leisure hours. A catalogue is the natural result of a collection, and as the latter has increased, the former keeping pace with it has grown till it has become respectable, at least in size, if not rendered interesting by some curious and facetious anecdotes with which it is interspersed. In the compilation of this work, it has been the author's endeavour to blend the "utile " with the dulce;" and he has at least succeeded, so far as regards himself, in acquiring an acquaintance with the Medici family (not Mr. Roscoe's *), and has familiarised himself both with the learned and the ignorant, the regulars and the irregulars, of his profession; in short, with what may be denominated the Republic of Medicine: for he has looked at them * It is a fact worthy of notice, that the House of Medici bear on their coat of arms five pills. Who knows but that this illustrious family, and consequently the revival of learning in Europe, may have owed their origin to some medical man of antiquity? A 2 till he could identify the very wigs that would have met together in a consultation, from the time of Radcliffe and Garth down to Pitcairn and Fothergill. And here the author would fain deprecate, in the words of Andrew Borde, the anger of those "Egregious doctors, and masters of the eximious and arcane science of Physic," who might otherwise "exasperate themselves against him for writing of this little volume," by stating, that he has refrained from descanting upon the merits of living characters, further than by transcribing in some few instances, the testimony that others have borne to their worth and abilities. Should the author succeed in this humble attempt; should he, by means of this work, or any future continuation of it, rescue from "dumb forgetfulness" even a few of those who have been comprehended within the circle of his own personal acquaintance; or should the subject attract the attention of others better qualified than himself to do justice to the moral worth and intellectual endowments of the most useful class of men of science and literature, he will not consider either that his time has been ill employed, or that his office has been altogether unprofitable. * The wig, in former times, was looked upon as no inconsiderable part of the insignia of the Physician; even in the middle of the last century so much importance was attached to it, that Dr. Brocklesby's barber's boy was accustomed to carry a band-box through high 'change, exclaiming, "Make way for Dr. Brocklesby's wig!" MEMOIRS, MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL. ABERNETHY, JOHN, F. R. S. ABRAHAMS, GALENUS. M. Mascher pinx. Born 1622. : P. Van Gaust sc. Died 1706. ACADEMIA DI CIMENTO. PORTRAITS. ADAIR, ROBERT, Esq. F. J. Abbot pinx. J. Jones sc. 1791. Surgeon to the forces at the siege of Quebec. ADAMS, JOS. M. D. Physician to the Small Pox & Inoculation Hospitals. W. Wadd ad vivum del. 1796. Died 1818. Born 1756. The youngest son of a respectable medical practitioner in the city, and may be said to have entered into, and continued in the world, for threescore years, in a constant and familiar intercourse with every possible appendage to the healing art; hos B |