blessing which maketh rich followed this act of conscientiousness, for, after practising in Tortola five years, he succeeded in amassing nearly £2000, part of which he gave to his mother, and with the rest returned to London, became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and commenced practice in 1770 under the auspices of Dr. Fothergill. He shortly after married a Miss Miers. The limits of this notice will not allow of our following him through the details of professional life. His correspondence gives ample proof how earnestly he laboured to promote the welfare of his fellow-creatures by every possible method; how numerous were the subjects to which for this purpose he devoted his attention; and how well he deserved Professor Marx's valuable designation of a "thoroughly honorable man."

The pamphlet on the 'Tea Tree,' to which allusion is made in the letter, appeared in 1772. It had formed the subject of his inaugural dissertation at the University of Leyden.

In 1776 he published 'Observations preparatory to the Use of Dr. Mayersbach's Medicines,' which went through two editions in the year. The second edition is ornamented with an engraving of the picture of Teniers.

Water Doctor,' from an original

In 1778 he delivered an oration before the Medical Society of London, the subject of which was a sketch of the History of the Origin of Medicine.' It was printed, at the request of the Society, with various historical illustrations, forming a quarto book of 170 pages. As this work is the basis of Professor Marx's remarks in his letter to him, it may not be amiss to say a few words respecting it. The plan which he had formed of this history, of which the oration was only the first chapter, was one of a very extensive character, and which, unhap

pily, want of leisure prevented his carrying out. He proposed to consider

1. Medicine in general.

2. History of Discoveries in Medicine. 3. History of Benefactors to Medicine.

4. History of Arts and Sciences in general.

The work to be divided into periods, forming certain particular eras in medicine, and connected with some important circumstances in the general history of the world.

First Period. To commence with the Creation, and end with the Trojan War; the period of Natural and Fabulous Medicine.

Second Period.-Empiricism from Necessity, to begin with the Trojan, and end with the Peloponnesian War.

Third Period.-Dogmatism, from Hippocrates to Serapion; namely, to the time of the destruction of Carthage, 146 years before Christ.

Fourth Period.-From Serapion to the birth of Christ, about the time of Themison.-Professed Empiricism.

Fifth Period.-From Themison to Galen.-Methodism. Sixth Period. From Galen to Paracelsus.-Peripatetic Dogmatism.

Seventh Period.-From Paracelsus to Harvey.-Chemical Dogmatism.

Eighth Period. From Harvey to Boerhaave.-Mechanical Dogmatism.

Ninth Period.-From Boerhaave, who introduced a new system, which included all the others, to the present time. -General Dogmatism.

Dr. Lettsom continued to improve this work, on which he dwelt with much satisfaction to the end of his life.

To Dr. Lettsom the public are chiefly indebted for the establishment of those eminently beneficial institutions—

dispensaries for the sick and necessitous. It was in 1770 that he, assisted by several benevolent friends, succeeded in forming the General Dispensary, being the first of the kind instituted. In 1773 he was elected one of the physicians of the charity, and published a small, but excellent pamphlet, which did much to advance the cause. He also originated the Sea Bathing Infirmary of Margate.

In 1780 Dr. Lettsom lost his valued friend, the benevolent and learned Dr. John Fothergill, and to him, as to an old and intimate associate, and one thoroughly acquainted with the habits and opinions of the deceased, fell the office of becoming his biographer. He published a very interesting memoir of his friend, together with a complete collection of his works, and a selection from his correspondence. The benevolent character of Fothergill gave Dr. Lettsom an opportunity, which he zealously embraced, of enlarging on a subject which lay very near his heart, as his valuable letters testify, namely, the distresses of the poor.

To the fourth edition of the Life of Fothergill' Dr. Lettsom appended memoirs of Drs. Cuming, Cleghorn, and Russel, and Mr. Collinson, all of whom had been associates and friends of Dr. Fothergill. With Dr. Cuming Lettsom himself maintained a regular correspondence, and at the death of Dr. Cuming he purchased all his books, MSS., prints, and collections of natural objects. In 1786 Dr. Lettsom exerted himself to raise a fund towards erecting a statue to the memory of the philanthropist Howard. It would indeed lead us too far, and take up too much space, were we to enumerate all the benevolent projects which he either originated or promoted; one, however, must be selected, because it is mentioned by Professor Marx, namely, his efforts to obtain an honorable remuneration for the important discovery of Jenner.

For a considerable time Dr. Lettsom maintained the first practice in the city of London, and his professional emoluments were very great; from 1786 to 1800 being not less than from £5000 to £12,000 annually.

He died on the 1st of November, 1815, and was interred in the Friends' burial-ground, Little Coleman street, Bunhill row, on the 7th of the same month. Although the funeral took place at an early hour, several hundreds of the poor flocked round the grave, and manifested by their tears their deep sense of the loss they had sustained.

He was prosperous, beloved, and respected; his influence in his age was great, and that influence was steadily exerted to promote the physical comfort and social welfare of his fellow-creatures. Though not learned himself, he was a liberal patron of learning in others, and the constant friend of science and literature. His Life, by Pettigrew, is a worthy tribute to his memory, and his Letters a lasting memorial to his fame.

LETTER TO DR. JOHN COAKLEY LETTSOM.

"You published a discourse upon the state of medical science previous to the Trojan war,* but I do not address this letter merely to the historian (a distinction, indeed, which you did not appropriate to yourself) so much as to the thoroughly honorable man whom I have learned to know from your collected works, and especially from your biography of Fothergill. With such an one it is best to discuss the importance of medical narratives.

"Undoubtedly you had in your lifetime larger demands made on your forbearance and moderation, so that I trust I may reckon on an indulgent hearing. You said yourself that in the external world, as in the world of thought and feeling, there must be an endless diversity; as there are not two leaves on a tree quite alike, and yet we cannot pronounce of either that it is the most perfect, so it is in human opinions, especially with regard to the heart, for you reckoned up no less than three thousand† religious fraternities (or sects).§

* History of the Origin of Medicine, an Oration, London, 1778. + Observations on Religious Persecution, London, 1800.

Obs. preparatory to the Use of Dr. Mayersbach's Medicines, ib. 1776; second edition, with an engraving of the "Water Doctor," from Teniers.

§ [Note of Translator.—The passage in Lettsom's Life here referred to, is as follows: "Were I a legislator, I should like to have in my jurisdiction all the three thousand different kinds of religion that are said to be in the world. To see the various ways of addressing the Father of all, must be a glorious sight to a pious mind, and must, I think, be acceptable to the Author of our being. The constitutions of men are as unlike as their faces, and the bent of thought as dissimilar; but when all, though various in opinion, unite in the great act of adoration, the multiplicity of religions appears to augment the solemnity and the grandeur of it." Vol. ii, p. 57.]