mental to fociety. In a commnnication from Dr S-- to Dr Beddoes, it is faid, that after the failure of his boarding houfe, he became impatient, and unfortunately quarrelled with Dr Cullen, from a fuppofi tion, that the Doctor had it in his power to extricate him from embarraffinent, by placing him in a more liberal and lucrative fituation in the medical line.' Dr Beddoes remem bers to have heard a report at Edin burgh coinciding with this intimation. When the theoretical chair of medicine became vacant, either on the death of Dr Alexander Monro Drummond, or the refufal of this promifing young man to fill it, B own gave in his name as a candidate. On a former occafion, of a nature fome what fimilar, he had disdained to a vail himself of recommendation, which he might have obtained with cafe; and though he acquitted him felf in a manner far fuperior to the other candidates, private intereft then prevailed over the more juft pretenfions of merit. At the prefent competition he was alfo without recommendation. Such was his fimplicity, that he seems to have conceived nothing beyond pre-eminent qualifications neceffary to fuccefs. The Magiftrates of Edinburgh appoint Profeffors to the College as well as Masters to the School. They are reported, deridingly, to have enquired who this unknown and unfriended candidate was? and Cullen, on being fhewn the name, after fome real or affected hesitation, is faid to have exclaimed, in the vulgar dialect of the country, Why fure, this can never be our Jock! With this fneer the application of a man was set afide, whofe equal the patrons of the Edinburgh profeffors will not probably foon have an opportunity of rejecting Whether fuch a farcafm was uttered or not, Cullen complete ly eftranged the mind of his Latin fecretary on a fubfequent occafion.

As we are not fufficiently acquainted with the particulars, we cannot venture to appreciate his condu&t; but the mortal affront was given, when Brown attempted to gain admiffion into that philofophical fociety which published the Edinburgh Effays After this tranfaction an open rupture took place; but however it arose, the account furnished, if not written by Brown, evinces that both parties had before conceived a fecret jealousy of each other.

Being eftranged from Dr Cullen's family, he gradually became his greatest enemy, and fhortly afterwards found out the new theory of phyfic, which gave occafion to his publishing the Elementa Medicinæ,' in the preface to which work. he gives an account of the accident that led to this difcovery. The approbation his work met with among his friends encouraged him to give, lectures upon his fytem. Though his lectures were not very numerously attended by the students, on account of their dependance upon the profeffors, till it was always remarked, that the most clever among them were all, as they were now called by way of nickname, Brunonians. Hence arofe that perfecution, which was carried on with fuch rancour, that it at length obliged him to leave Edinburgh.' The above quotation is from Dr S--, which in fome particulars is by no means exact, and in others the ftatement is overcharged. Meanwhile, if it be undeniable, that as the Cullenian hypothefes were finking into disrepute, many of the ableft ftudents reforted to the ftandard of Brown, it ought not to be forgotten, that it was joined also by the most idle and diffolute. Their mifconduct, and their matter's imprudence in private life, together with the offenfive manner in which he fpoke of himself and others, kept ́ the fyftem and the author in conftant difcredit. He was foon in a

ftate

1

ftate of open hoftility with all the medical teachers at Edinburgh, and it required nicer management than he could obferve, to keep on fair terms with other practitioners of me dicine. Like other reformers, who have had to wrestle with powerful oppofition, he committed and sustain ed injustice. Like them too, where his fystem was concerned, he gradually loft his fenfe of equity. If we judge by his language, the only way he had to fhew his difpofition, his Countryman Knox could fcarcely have exceeded him in ferocity. Thus, having remarked that the doctrine of fpafm, fuggefted by Van Helmont, and clumfily wrought up into a fyftem by Hoffman, was banished by Boerhaave from the country which gave it birth, it found at laft,' he adds, amidit a new perfecution raised againft it by the pupils of Boerhaave, then in the poffeffion of the medical chairs at Edinburgh, a friend and protector in Dr Cullen, who had lately become one of the number of thofe profeffors. This brat,' he proceeds, the feeble, halfvital, femi-production of frenzy, the ftarveling of trained fyftematic dulnefs, the forlorn outcaft of the fofter ing care to which it owed its infect vitality, was now to be pampered by a crude and indigeftible nutriture, collected from all the materials which had compofed the feveral fabrications of former erroneous fyftems, was to be decorated with every foreign plumage, and in this its totally borrowed and heterogeneous form, inftead of the hideous caricatura which it was contrived to excite the derifion of mankind, it was to be oftentatiously obtruded upon the world

as a

6

new and refpectable doctrine, and held up, forthwith, as the formidable rival of a fplendid fyftem *.' Such is the torrent of metaphors that rushes upon his imagination,

when he thinks of the fyftem of his ancient friend and mafter.

During the heat of contention between the oppofers and defenders of the new fyftem, an event happen. ed, which we wish we could fairly pafs over in filence; but as it has been already the fubje&t of more than one publication, there can be no pretence for the omiffi ›n.

Mr Ifaacfon, a ftudent of medicine, had been feized with a fever, which in its progrefs exhibited the moft alarming fymptoms. Dr Duncan was first called in, and afterwards Dr Monro. Dr Robert Jones, a new graduate, and a friend to Mr Ifaacfon, tampered with the nurse to induce her fecretly to administer strong ftimulant medicines: they were giv. en, as he afferts in his Enquiry,' for about twenty-four hours, with fuch effect, that, on their next visit, the phyficians declared the patient free from fever,' though before he had all the fymptoms of approaching death. In the afternoon, however, of the fame day, he was feized with a raging delirium, Jones, in his alarm, applied to his preceptor; the preceptor, being told that the nurfe defired to fee him, ordered her to be brought before him. When the was brought before him, he complimented her by a folemn appeal to her understanding concerning the great principles of his fyftem. *He endeavoured to affure her, that there was either no inflammation in the cafe at all, or that it was a very different affection from the inflammation that physicians were acquainted with; that inftead of requiring bleeding, and other evacuant antiphlogistic means, it required the very fame treatment which had been laft employed; and he af ferted with confidence, that the intermiffion of the ftimulant powers through the day was the cause of all that had happened; that, in fhort,

the

the prefent affection was a difeafe of debility of the whole fyftem, predominant in the brain, in confequence of the great finking of ftrength which conftantly follows a total ceffation of the ufe of fuch highly ftimulating powers. He begged, therefore, as the life of a fellow-creature was at ftake, and as the had been fo late a witnefs of the good effects refulting from the method of cure, the continuance of which he ftill recommended, that she would not allow prejudice and impreffions from the falfe theories of phyficians, among whom the had been converfant, to prevail over the high probability of fuccefs from this mode of cure. He di mif fed her, after obtaining a promise that fhe would continue the plan of cure in question.'

Brown, for a comic figure, was not inferior to Sancho Panza, or indeed much unlike that entertaining perfonage; and this clandeftine conference, if it had been delineated by Cervantes, would have made a good companion for the nocturnal interview between Don Quixotte and the venerable Duenna Donna Rodriguez. The patient, however, thanks be to fortune, skill, or virtue, recovered. The Brunonians placed the cure to the credit of their practice, which they reported to have been fuccefsful after Dr Duncan and Dr Monro had given the patient over; they published the cafe; they affert ed, that the cure gave great vexation to the attendant phyficians, and all their partizans;' and, with the policy ufual among aggreffors, they complained that Dr Brown was illtreated, because he was blamed in the numerous circles of the phyficians' friends, and his enemies, while no opportunity was offered him of vindicating himself from these charges.?

A ftudent of medicine died of a low fever, in spite of the full, and avowed ufe of diffufible ftimulants.

The body was opened; feveral perfons were prefent. During the examination of the appearances, Brown, with an air of great fagacity, remark. ed that the body was unufually fresh. The diffecting furgeon, whom perhaps kindred devotion to Bacchus had infpired with tenderness for the Doctor, replied, that, confidering the circumstances, he had fcarce feen an inftance where putrefaction had made fuch little progrefs, • Then, Gentlemen,' rejoined the Doctor, I appeal to you, whether we may not confider this as a clear proof of the propriety of our practice.'

Brown was elected Prefident of the Medical society in 1776, and again iu 1780.

Obferving the ftudents of medieine frequently to seek initiation into the myfteries of free mafonry, our author thought their youthful curiofity afforded him a chance of profelytes. In 1784 he inftituted a meeting of that fraternity, and entitled it The Lodge of the Roman Eagle. The bufinefs was conducted in the Latin language, which he fpoke with the fame fluency and animation as he spoke Scotch. I was much diverted, adds Dr Macdonald, by his ingenuity in turning into Latin all the terms ufed in masonry.'

In unfolding his fyftem, it was his practice first to tranflate the text book, fentence by fentence, and then to expatiate upon the paffage. For moft of his pupils a tranflation was highly neceffary, and he muft have confidered it as politic to combine literary with fcientific inftruction. The profpect of this double advantage might perhaps, from time to time, bring him a few additional hearers; but whatever was the abfolute or comparative merit of the the-ory he taught, his feats were seldom crowded.

The introductory lecture was intended to imprefs upon his audience a fenfe of the importance of the lec

turer's

turer's discoveries; its effect was rather to render him ridiculous. He ufually proceeded to open his fyftem with animation; but he did not al ways perfevere with the fame fpi

rit.

He was apt, as he advanced, to fail in punctuality of attendance. As the master's ardour abated, flackness Atole upon his pupils, fo that his courfes not very unfrequently fhared the fate of Butler's ftory of the bear and fiddle. The numerous inaccuracies with which, in spite of the remonftrances of his well-wifhers, he fuffered both editions of his Elements' to pass through the prefs, e vince his negligence in thofe concerns, which might be fuppofed to lie neareft his heart. When he found himfelf languid, he fometimes placed a bottle of whisky in one hand, and a phial of laudanum in the other, and before he began his lecture, he would generally take forty or fifty drops of laudanum in a glafs of whisky, repeating the quantity four or five times during the lecture. Between the effects of thefe ftimulants and voluntary exertion, he foon waxed warm, and by degrees his imagination was exalted into frenzy. A few words will defcribe the tenor of this unfortunate and imprudent man's life, till his removal from Scotland. He was fo reduced in his circumftances, as to be committed to prifon for debt, where his pupils attended his lectures. In the abufe of intoxicating liquors, he obferved no modera

tion.

In

of his country. Immediately on his arrival, an incident not very uncommon to ftrangers occurred, which we fhall relate in proof of his fimplicity.

I he peculiarity of his appearance as he moved along, a fhott, fquare figure, with an air of dignity, in a black fuit, which heightened the fearlet of his cheeks and nofe, fixed the attention of fome gentlemen in the street. They addreffed him in the dialect of his country; his heart, heavy as it must have been from the precarioufnefs of his fituation, and diftance from his accustomed haunts, expanded at thefe agreeable founds. A converfation enfued, and the parties, by common confent, adjourned to a tavern. Here the ftranger was kindly welcomed to town, and after the glafs had circulated for a time, fomething was propofed by way of fober amufement, a game at cards, or whatever the Doctor might prefer. The Doctor had been too civilly treated to demur; but his purse was fcantily furnished, and it was neceffary to quit his new friends in fearch of a fupply. Mr Murray, the bookfeller, was the perfon to whom he had recourfe: the reader will not wonder that his interference should have spoiled the adventure.

A London fharper of another denomination afterwards tried to make advantage by the Doctor. This was an ingenious fpeculator in public medicines. He thought a compofition of the most powerful ftimulants might have a run, under the title of Dr Brown's exciting pill: and, for the privilege of his name, offered him a fum in hand by no means contempti ble, as well as a fhare of the contingent profits. Poor Brown, needy as he was, fpurned at the propofal.

Change of refidence, however, wrought no change of conduct. Some of his friends were difgufted by those habits, which repetition had unalterably fixed. In dictating Brown's re

folutions,