this time, his practice and reputation were equally on the increase, it was not till eighteen months afterwards that he began to lose the fear of being overtaken by poverty; which, combined with the anxiety attendant on his office as lecturer, had an injurious effect upon his health. In 1816, taking advantage of the superabundance of Sir William Knighton's practice at the west end of the town, he, at the suggestion of that gentleman, removed to Berner's Street, where he carried on his professional labours with still greater success than he had in the city. Among other patients to whom he was introduced by Sir William Knighton, was the Marquess Wellesley; during a visit to whom, at Ramsgate, he was taken alarmingly ill, and was treated with great kindness and regard by that nobleman, who sent one of his own servants to London with him. After his recovery, his business became still more extensive. "In my profession," he observes in a letter to a friend, about two years after, "I am striding on with a rapidity which I had no right to expect at my age and standing. This is the happiest time of my life: my home is delightful to me; my station satisfactory, whether I regard what is doing for me, or what I am doing for others; my pecuniary cares gone; my prospects bright and, I may add, as certain as any thing can be, that is, if I live and preserve my health; but there's the rub,-that troubles me more than ever."

In 1802, he was severely afflicted by the death of his eldest son: for some time he could talk on no other subject; and one night he went to rest, praying that the apparition of his boy would appear, and satisfy the doubts by which he had been harassed, respecting his future state. Soon after, his practice having become restricted, owing to his bad state of health, he began to devote much of his time to theological literature and religious meditation. In 1822, he visited Paris; but the excursion gave him no pleasure, and only served to increase the melancholy it was intended to dispel. "I am an old man," he thus wrote in reference to the journey; "with me, the bloom is off the plum; there is nothing in life which can afford me lively pleasure, except for a moment, but the pleasures I have found around

VOL. II.

my fire-side." He no longer received any delight from literary pursuits; seldom read a book; and, except for a short time, had scarcely patience to converse with any but his most intimate friends. In 1824, after making a tour into Wales, he passed a few weeks in Norfolk, and finding, on his return to London, the subject of altering the quarantine laws in agitation, he wrote an article on the contagious nature of the plague, which appeared in the Quarterly Review, for December, 1825. The occupation seems to have aroused him from his gloom; and, in a letter to his friend Southey, he announced, in vehement language, his intention of producing a paper in opposition to "a set of half educated, wrong-headed medical adventurers, trying to persuade the government that the plague is not contagious."

At

Towards the close of 1825, he again visited the continent; from which, however, he returned, in so weak a state, that he was compelled to relinquish his practice in midwifery, and confine himself to that of prescription. In April, 1826, he became, through the influence of Sir William Knighton, librarian to the king. This appointment he was glad to accept, as he began to fear his continued illness would oblige him to resign his profession altogether. Malvern, however, where he passed the summer of the same year, he was so much invigorated, that he returned to town, able to employ himself actively in business, and in the composition of a work on the diseases peculiar to women, which he published in 1829. His bodily powers, soon after, began to decay with great rapidity. "He became," says one of his biographers, "a living skeleton; and so helpless, that he was fed like an infant; once or twice he grew delirious, for a few minutes, and the consciousness that he was so, distressed him greatly." His mental energies he retained to the last; and is said to have written a paper on anatomy, since inserted in the Quarterly Review, only a week or two before his death, which took place, after much suff ring, on the 16th of February, 1830.

In person, he was short and thin; in features, handsome; in the expression of his countenance, melancholy,

but intelligent; and, in deportment, tranquil and impressive. His prepossessing manners, his high reputation for skill, and the evident kindness of his heart, rarely failed, it is said, to procure him the attachment and confidence of his patients. By most.of his medical cotemporaries he was equally esteemed and admired. His treatise

on the diseases peculiar to women is described as being the most valuable work on the subject, in any language;" and that portion of it which relates to puerperal fever, and puerperal madness, as being," probably, the most important additions to practical medicine of the present age."

JOSEPH CONSTANTINE CARPUE, after having completed his medical education, was appointed surgeon to the York Hospital, at Chelsea, for the cure of contraction of the limbs, which situation he held for a short time; and on his resignation of it, went abroad for further improvement in his profession. He returned to England and commenced practice in London, where, in 1801, he published a Description of the Muscles of the Human Body as they appear on Dissection. In the following year, he published An Introduction to Electricity and Galvanism, having previously made several experiments in the latter branch of science, which he warmly patronised on its first introduction into England. He was also a great advocate for the vaccine inoculation, and was appointed one of the vaccinating surgeons of the National Vaccine Institution. He has also distinguished himself by intro

ducing into this country the operation performed in India for making a false nose; and, in 1816, published An Account of Two Successful Operations of Restoring a Lost Nose from the Integuments of the Forehead, performed by himself. In 1819, he published his History of the High Operation for the Stone, by incision above the Pubis, and an Account of the Various Methods of Lithotomy, from the Earliest Period down to the Present Time. He was very anxious to bring the high operation into practice, having witnessed the performance of it at Paris with great success. After the publication of this work, Mr. Carpue directed his attention to cutaneous diseases; for the cure of which he endeavoured to establish a hospital; and has, for many years, continued actively to employ himself in the accumulation of scientific and professional knowledge.

GUEST, (JOSHUA,) born in 1660, was the defender of Edinburgh Castle in 1745, when the rebels took possession of the Scotch metropolis. He held the command of the castle at a season which threatened danger to the house of Hanover, and has acquired a name less from his own merits than the fears of his fellow-countrymen; for it was no great exploit to maintain a fortress against an Highland army unprovided with artillery. He seems to have been a timid man; for when General Preston, the deputy-governor, wished to disperse, by cannon, the crowd who had assembled to hear the Pretender's proclamation, General Guest said it would be damaging the good subjects of the city, and his own friends would suffer by it. Preston, however, disregarded this cautious reasoning, and ordered a cannon to be fired, which drove down the side of a house that served as a shelter to the rebels, and they instantly retired to a safer distance. Guest's vigilance was, however, incessant; for, during the siege, he never retired to rest until six o'clock in the morning, when he was relieved by General Preston, nearly as aged as himself. He made a sally from the castle, and seized about two thousand loaves, which were to have been sent after the rebels, who had with them only four days' provision. As a proof of his honesty, it is said that he was offered £200,000 by the Pretender, to have surrendered the castle, which contained, at the time, riches to the amount of one million and an half. In the summer of 1746 he visited London, and being very infirm, arrived at his lodgings in Brook Street, in a horse litter. He soon after waited on the king, who received him and conversed with him very graciously. After a service of sixty years, he died on the 14th of October, 1747, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument, in the south aisle, records his "gallant" defence of Edinburgh Castle.

HAMILTON, (GEORGE, Earl of Orkney,) fourth son of the Duke of Hamilton, was born about 1666. He gave early proofs of a martial spirit, and was bred up to the military profession under his uncle, the Earl of Dumbarton. In the battles of Boyne, Aghrim, Steenkirk, and Landen, and at the sieges of Athlone, Limerick, and Namur, he displayed such undaunted gallantry, that William presented him with a regiment; appointed him a brigadier-general; and created him an Irish earl. He successively was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, invested with the order of the Thistle, elected one of the sixteen Scotch peers in the British parliament of 1708, and sworn a privy-counsellor. In the Flemish campaign of 1712, he served under the Duke of Ormond; and, in 1714, was appointed gentleman of the bedchamber to George the First, and governor of Virginia. George the Second promoted him to the rank of fieldmarshal, and intrusted him with the governorship of Edinburgh Castle. By a daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, he left heiresses; and it is a remarkable fact, that the title, up to the present time, has been borne by none but females. The earl died on the 29th of January, 1737. In the quaint language of a contemporary memorialist," he was a very well-shaped black man; was brave; but by reason of a hesitation in his speech, wanted expression." Dean Swift calls him "an honest, good-natured gentleman, who hath much distinguished himself as a soldier."

WILLS, (Sir CHARLES,) was born about 1670; in 1705, he served, as adjutant-general, under the Earl of Peterborough, in Spain, where he was one of the council of war who thought the capture of Barcelona impracticable. At St. Istevan de Litera, at the head of a small detachment, he repulsed the Chevalier d'Asfeldt, who had attacked him