of Sydenham, from whom, most of his fellow-practitioners differed in opinion, on that important subject. When called in to prescribe for the Duke of Beaufort, who had been attacked with the disorder in question, he is said to have greatly amazed and irritated that nobleman's grandmother, (who, as well as her husband, had recovered under the old method,) by ordering the shutters to be opened, and the apartment to be lighted and ventilated, as though nothing was the matter. Her grace remonstrating, with great vehemence, against this proceeding, he told her, that if she intermeddled with her unnecessary advice, he would do nothing for her grandson; but that if she would instantly go home, he would answer, with his life, for that of the duke, who, it is added, within a month, was restored to health.

He prescribed for the Marquess of Blandford, when that young nobleman was attacked with the same disorder, at Cambridge; but, it is said, the physicians there failed to comply with his directions, and the patient was, consequently, soon reduced to so dangerous a state, that his lordship's mother, the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough, entreated Radcliffe to go down to her son immediately. "Madam," he replied, "I should only put you to a great expense to no purpose. You have nothing to do for the marquess now, but to send down an undertaker to take care of his funeral, for I can assure your grace that, by this time, he is dead; although he would have recovered from the small-pox, but for the intervention of an unfortunate malady, called Doctor.'" The young marquess, it is added, died on the same day.

The

He once told Dr. Mead that the secret of making a fortune was to use all mankind ill. Trifling accounts he always evinced a great reluctance to pay; observing, that he hated to break a guinea, because the change slipped away so fast. He once told a pavier, who had frequently dunned him for a small amount, that he, the pavier, had done his work badly, and then covered it over with earth to conceal it. "Mine is not the only bad work which the earth conceals," said the man, significantly. Struck with this reply, Radcliffe immediately paid the applicant's bill,

observing, that he was a wit, and must, therefore, be poor.

Not content with the vast profits of his profession, he was induced, in 1692, by the representations of Betterton, the actor, to risk £5,000 in a venture to the East Indies; which proving altogether unsuccessful, he coolly remarked, that he had but to go up five thousand pairs of stairs, and all would again be right.

Several cases have been related, in which his charity was admirably free from ostentation. In 1704, he sent £500 to the Bishop of Norwich, for the benefit of nonjuring clergymen, in the diocese of which that prelate had recently been deprived, earnestly requesting that the name of the donor should not be divulged. In 1707, he forwarded £300 to Dr. Spratt, for the relief of the episIcopal clergy of Scotland, under the assumed signature of Francis Andrews; and on another occasion, anonymously settled £50 per annum, for ever, on the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

At one period of his life, being pressed by his acquaintance to marry, he looked out for a wife, and at length fixed his choice upon the daughter of a wealthy citizen of London, with whom it was agreed he should have £15,000 down, and a still larger sum on the demise of her father, whom, however, he soon found reason to address in the following terms:-"Mrs. Mary is a very deserving gentlewoman, but you must pardon me, if I think her by no means fit to be my wife, since she is another man's already, or ought to be. In a word, she is no better and no worse than actually quick with child, which makes it necessary that she be disposed of to him that has the best claim to her affections. doubt but you have power enough over her to bring her to confession, which is by no means the part of a physician. I shall wish you much joy of a new son-in-law, when known, since I am by no means qualified to be so near of kin. Hanging and marrying, I find, go by destiny; and I might have been guilty of the first, had I not so narrowly escaped the last." This was the only matrimonial scheme in which he ever engaged, the lesson proving too strong for his memory to forget, or his prejudice to surmount.

No

66

JOHN WOODWARD, a native of Derbyshire, was born on the 1st of May, 1665, and, after having received the rudiments of education at a country school, was put apprentice to a linen-draper, whom, however, he soon quitted, and shortly after, became acquainted with Dr. Peter Barwick, a physician, who, finding him," says Ward, his biographer, " of a very promising genius, took him under his tuition in his own family." After having made considerable progress in philosophy, physic, and anatomy, he was invited to visit Sir Ralph Datton, Dr. Barwick's son-in-law, at Sherborne, in Gloucestershire, where his mineralogical observations and collections "led him to conclude," says the authority before cited," that the great mixture, which he everywhere found, both of native and extraneous fossils, must result from some general cause; and, at length, convinced him of the universality of the Mosaic deluge."

"

In January, 1692, he was chosen professor of physic in Gresham college, on the recommendation of several eminent men, and, particularly through the testimonial of Dr. Barwick, who certified that Woodward "had made the greatest advance, not only in physic, anatomy, botany, and other parts of natural philosophy, but likewise in history, geography, mathematics, philology, and all other useful learning, of any man he ever knew of his age. In 1693, he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society; and, about the same period, he attracted the attention of the virtuosi, and the ridicule of the wits, by the private exhibition of an old shield; and such was his anxiety to inform the learned world of the treasure he possessed, that he had several casts made of it in plaster of Paris, and a copper-plate engraving of it circulated at Amsterdam. "By these means," says Ward, "the thoughts and critical skill of many celebrated antiquaries were employed about this rarity;" and Dodwell commenced writing a Latin dissertation upon it, which

in consequence of his death, was finished by Hearne, and published under the title of Henrici Dodwell de Parmâ Equestri Woodwardiana Dissertatio.

În 1695, he obtained his degree of M. D. by a mandate from Archbishop Tenison; and, during the same year, published a work, entitled, An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, especially in Minerals, as also of the Sea, River, and Springs; with an account of the Universal Deluge, and of the Effects it had upon the Earth. One of his propo

an

sitions in this book, the whole of which excited great ridicule, was, that fossil shells were the exuvia of sea fishes, against which, the opinion of naturalists was then almost unanimous. In 1696, he published a pamphlet entitled, Brief Instructions for making Observations in all parts of the World, as also for Collecting, Preserving, and Sending over Natural Things, &c.; in which he appealed to all persons in every part of the globe, to assist in establishing an universal correspondence for the improvement and diffusion of natural knowledge, on the plan of his Instructions; a publication which was swered by three or four hostile letters, under different signatures; though Harris, who took up the defence of Woodward, attributed them all to the pen of Dr. Martin Lister. The controversy between Woodward and his opponents was terminated by a pamphlet, written by Dr. Arbuthnot, who, after drawing a comparison between the former's hypothesis, relative to marine bodies, and that of Steno, whose ideas he had been accused of borrowing, came to the conclusion," that though Dr. Woodward's hypothesis seemed to be liable to many just exceptions, the whole was not to be exploded."

In 1698, he was admitted a licentiate, and in 1792, elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1704, a Latin translation of his Essay having been printed at Zurich, he became engaged in a controversy with Cuper and Leibnitz, and, some years afterwards,

with Camerarius, who closed the dispute with a very handsome acknowledgment of Woodward's abilities; although the latter had very insufficiently answered many of his objections in a Latin treatise, entitled, Naturalis Historia Telluris illustrata et aucta; of which, an English translation, by Holloway, appeared in 1726.

In 1718, he published a work, entitled, The State of Physic and Diseases, with an Inquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of them; but more particularly of the Small-Pox: with some Considerations upon the New Practice of Purging in that Disease, &c. This practice had been advocated by Dr. Mead and Dr. Freind, especially by the latter, in his Commentary on Fevers, against which was principally directed the treatise of Woodward, who endeavoured to show the advantage of emetics. He, however, stood no chance with an adversary like Freind, who, with the assistance of Dr. Mead, gained a complete triumph over him. The latter, however, seems to have displayed an unbecoming virulence in the contest: and to have expressed himself, so long as thirty years afterwards, in the preface to his Treatise on the Small-Pox, in a manner that would have been perfectly inexcusable, even in the heat of the dispute; during which, it is stated, in the Medical Anecdotes, on the authority of Dr. Lawrence, whose correctness on the point there is, however, strong reason to doubt, that Mead went to Gresham College for the purpose of challenging Woodward; and

meeting him under the arch, in the way from the outer court to the green court, drew his sword and bid him defend himself, or beg pardon; which, it is supposed, he did."

During the latter part of his life, which terminated on the 25th of April, 1728, he devoted the chief portion of his time to his darling fossils and shells." His collection was purchased by the university of Cambridge, to which he had bequeathed £150 per annum, for the foundation of a mineralogical lectureship: this appears to have been first held by Dr. Conyers Middleton, who wrote a Latin inscription for the founder's monument in Westminster Abbey. Shortly after his death appeared A Catalogue of Fossils in the collection of John Woodward, M. D., and an octavo production from his pen, entitled, Fossils of all Kinds digested into a Method suitable to their Mutual Relations and Affinity. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of some archæological tracts, and a few contributions to the Philosophical Transactions.

Dr. Woodward, though rather eccentric, appears to have been a man of considerable abilities, and great humanity. One of his biographers states, that "as he was a genius sui generis, so his method of reasoning was often grounded upon a way of reason peculiar to himself." The catalogue of his collection has met with considerable praise on account of the correct information in many cases to be derived from it, as to the localities of the specimens.

As a geologist he is certainly entitled to high praise, for having made actual observations the basis of his theories, which, if estimated, as they should be, by the scanty stock of materials in the possession of philosophers, at the early part of the past century, may be pronounced rather creditable, than otherwise, to his mental capacity.

manner of living. I found the bottle companions, the younger gentry, and free livers, to be the most easy of access, and most quickly susceptible of friendship and acquaintance; nothing being necessary for that purpose but to be able to eat lustily, and swallow down much liquor; and, being naturally of a large size, a cheerful temper, and tolerably lively imagination; and having, in my country retirement, laid in a store of ideas and facts; by these qualifications I soon became caressed by them, and grew daily in bulk, and in friendship with these gay gentlemen and acquaintances."

By continuing for some time this course of life, which he pursued no less from inclination than as the means of obtaining practice, he seriously injured his health; becoming nearly thirty-three stone in weight, nervous, scorbutic, short-breathed, lethargic, and listless; so that, according to one of his biographers, his life was an intolerable burden, and his condition the most deplorable. Being forsaken by, what he termed, his bouncing, protesting, undertaking companions, and having in vain tried to remove his complaint by medicine, he sank into a state of melancholy and dejection, from which he endeavoured to obtain relief in religious reading and meditation. His attempt succeeded; and at length, having adopted a milk and vegetable diet, he recovered his strength, activity, and cheerfulness; the restoration, of which, however, he ascribed, in part, to the Bath waters, in an account of their nature which he appended to his Essay on the Due Method of Treating the Gout.

His other works consist of An Essay on Health and Long Life, which has passed through numerous editions, and been translated into Latin; A New Theory of acute and slow-continued Fevers; Fluxionum Methodus inversa; Philosophical Principles of Religion, Natural and Revealed, a book dedicated to the Earl of Roxburgh, and written expressly for his use; The English Malady, or a Treatise on Nervous Disorders; The natural Mode of curing the Diseases of the Body and the Disorders of the Mind depending on the Body; an Essay on Regimen; and some other pieces.

His productions, which appear to be chiefly on the subject of diet, are addressed, for the most part, to the stu

dious and the voluptuous. His maxims, both as a physician and a writer, were founded on "a few perceptible truths;" and the system which he formed is said to have had "a peculiar tendency to promote virtue and religion, to calm the passions, refine the mind, and purify the heart."

He seems to have been a man of an amiable unassuming character, and sincerely to have regretted the hostile expressions against his cotemporaries of which he had been guilty in some of his early writings. He describes his Fluxionum Methodus inversa, (which had procured his election to the Royal Society, in 1705,) as having been brought forth in ambition, and bred up in vanity. My defence of that work,' he adds, "against the learned and acute Mr. Abr. De Moivre, being written in a spirit of levity and resentment, I most sincerely retract, and wish undone, so far as it is personal or peevish, and ask him and the world pardon for it; as I do for the defence of Dr. Pitcairn's Dissertations, and the New Theory of Fevers, against the late learned and ingenious Dr. Oliphant. I heartily condemn and detest all personal reflections, all malicious and unmannerly turns, and all false and unjust representations, as unbecoming gentlemen, scholars, and Christians; and disprove and undo both performances, as far as in me lies, in every thing that does not strictly and barely relate to the argument."

During the period of his illness, he read the most celebrated works on the subject of Christianity from its earliest ages. "On these," he observes, "I have formed my ideas, principles, and sentiments; so as, under all the varieties of opinion, sects, disputes, and controversies, that have been canvassed and bandied in the world, I have scarce ever been the least shaken, or tempted to change my sentiments or opinions, or so much as to hesitate in any material point." One of his maxims was, "to neglect nothing to secure his eternal peace more than if he had been certified he should die within the day; nor to mind any thing that his secular duties and obligations demanded of him, less than if he had been ensured to live fifty years more."

He died at Bath, in 1743, where he had for a long period been in rather extensive