shire. The date of his birth is supposed to have been 1709. The course of his early education is also unknown. He studied physic at Edinburgh, and graduated at the university February 4, 1732, the subject of his thesis being, "De Tabe Purulenta." This was printed and published, and a copy was sent by the author to Sir Hans Sloane, then president of the Royal College of Physicians of London, to whom it is dedicated, with a Latin letter, which is preserved in the library of the British Museum. Like Akenside, he devoted himself early to the Muses, and cultivated poetry, sculpture, painting, and music. In 1725 he is conjectured to have written his Winter, and to have finished it just as Thomson's poem, The Seasons, appeared. It is a descriptive sketch in imitation of Shakespeare, and obtained for the author the commendation of Thomson, Mallet, Aaron Hill, and Young. Mallet wrote to one of his friends in Edinburgh to ask the author's permission to publish it; but he afterwards altered his mind, and it did not appear until 1770, when it was printed along with other imitations of Shakespeare and Spenser.

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In 1734 he printed, in the second volume of the Edinburgh Medical Essays, an Essay on Penetrating Topic Medicines, being an attempt to explain some of the phenomena of absorption, upon the principles of the mechanical philosophy. In this year also, he wrote a paper Of the Alcalescent Disposition of Animal Fluids, which was read before the Royal Society, January 30, 1735, but was not printed in the Philosophical Transactions. preserved in the Sloane Collection (Dr. Birch's Papers) in the British Museum, No. 4433. In 1735 he published a pamphlet, without affixing his name to it, under the title of An Essay for Abridging the Study of Physic; to which is added a Dialogue (betwixt Hygeia, Mercury, and Pluto) relating to the Practice of Physic as it is managed by a certain illustrious Society; as also an Epistle from Usbek the Persian to J(oshua) W(ar)d, Esq. This was reprinted in Dilly's Repository (vol. iii. p. 125). It is a humorous satire on quackery, containing some severe but just reflections on the ignorance of apothecaries in general. It is dedicated to the antacademic philo sophers, to the generous despisers of the schools, to the deservedly celebrated Joshua) W(ar)d, and J(ohn) M(oo)r, and the rest of the numerous sect of in spired physicians."

In 1737 he published a Synopsis of the History and Cure of Venereal Diseases, 8vo, which has not been held in much estimation, being little more than an abridgement of the works of preceding writers, principally translated from the Aphrodisiacus published by Boerhaave, at Leyden, 1728. It was soon followed by the Economy of Love, a poem distinguished by its licentiousness, but written with great vigour. This work did much injury to Armstrong's reputation and character. This he, in some measure, redeemed by another work, which has gone through many editions, the Art of Preserving Health, originally printed in 1744, in 4to. It has been designated by some competent judges as the best didactic poem in any modern language. His character as a poet, and his talents as a professional observer of the human body and its various functions, the operation of different agents, moral and physical, on its constitution, &c., may safely rest upon the merits of this work: there are in it passages of great beauty and intrinsic excellence. It has gained for him the highest approbation. Between the publication of the foregoing poems it is probable his spirits were much depressed, and his prospects in life far from cheering; for, from letters preserved in the British Museum, we find that he solicited the assistance of Dr. Birch to exercise his influence with the generous Dr. Mead to get him appointed physician to the forces then going to the West Indies. In this object, however, he did not succeed, but he was chosen, in 1746, one of the physicians to the Hospital for Sick and Lame Soldiers, then situated behind Buckingham-house. He obtained this appointment principally through the interest of Mead, to whose taste and excellence he makes allusion in the first book of his Art of Preserving Health, in the following elegant terms:

"O thou beloved by all the graceful arts,

Thou long the fav'rite of the healing powers." A poem Of Benevolence, an Epistle to Eumenes, some one who had endeavoured to do the author a great piece of service, appeared in 1751, and did honour to his sensibility. His Taste, an Epistle to a Young Critic, was printed in 1753. It it written in imitation of Pope, and is strongly tinctured by that splenetic character which afterwards so lamentably distinguished him. Under a fictitious name, that of Launcelot Temple, Esq., he published in 1758, Sketches; or, Essays on various Subjects. In the com

position of some of these, he has been supposed to have been assisted by his friend John Wilkes, Esq., with whom he enjoyed great intimacy. The style of the Essays is, however, in general cynical, coarse, and affected, and added nothing to the author's reputation; indeed, it is probable that the censure unsparingly applied to this work, tended to confirm the hated he entertained for the critics of his day.

Armstrong was appointed physician to the army in Germany in 1760, for which he is said to have been indebted to the interest of Wilkes; and in this year he wrote a poem, called A Day, an Epistle to John Wilkes, of Aylesbury, Esq. It was considered to have been published without his knowledge or consent, by an anonymous editor, supposed to be some one to whom Mr. Wilkes had lent it. Churchill has been reported to have imagined himself reflected on in it, and his temper is said to have led him to retort upon the author in the Journey. This, however, is scarcely probable, as the lines which have been referred to relate rather to an actor than a poet, and great as the vanity of Churchill unquestionably was, he could hardly have ventured to ascribe to himself the line,

"What crazy scribbler reigns the present wit?" and it is still less likely that he would have allowed four years to elapse before he made his retort to a supposed attack. The animosity which existed between Churchill and Armstrong is rather to be attributed to differences in opinion upon political subjects.

About this time Armstrong broke in friendship with Wilkes, it is said, on account of some reflections on the national character of Scotchmen, inserted in the North Briton. This variance continued for many years, and in 1773 Armstrong called Wilkes to account for some reflections on his character, which he attributed to Wilkes, and which appeared in the Public Advertiser. The particulars relating to this transaction are to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1792, but they are evidently furnished by a prejudiced hand. Upon the establishment of peace in 1763, Armstrong returned to London, and devoted himself to practice, in which, however, he was never extensively engaged. In 1770 he published 2 vols, 12mo, of Miscellanies, which contain most of the pieces previ ously mentioned, with the exception G the Economy of Love, of which, however,

he prepared an edition in 1768, expunging many of the most offensive passages, and the Epistle to Wilkes. They contain also some other pieces of no great merit, and therefore do not deserve particular notice. He offered to Garrick a tragedy, entitled The Forced Marriage, but it was rejected. It is printed in the Miscellanies, and has been described as distinguished by "much passion, but little judgment. A Short Ramble through some Parts of France and Italy, under the name of Launcelot Temple, was put forth in 1771, and is interesting principally from having been made in company with Fuseli, who has spoken favourably of the general benevolence of Armstrong. Dr. Armstrong has also made allusion to the painter in one of his sketches, and justly predicted the eminence he attained. He designates him as "a genius, not indeed of British growth; unpatronized, and at present almost unknown; who may live to astonish, to terrify, and delight all Europe." In this tour he paid a visit to Smollett, who then resided near Leghorn.

Dr. Armstrong's last publication was a quarto volume of Medical Essays, in which the peculiarities of his temper, and his extreme dissatisfaction with every thing around him, is but too abundantly manifested. He condemns all theory, yet fails not to enlist it to his aid when he assigns to every gland" an occult kind of magical power, inexplicable to the human faculties, of transforming the blood which passes through its fabric into this or that particular humour." In 1779 he paid a visit in Lincolnshire, and upon getting into his carriage to return to London, met with an accident, by which his thigh was seriously injured, and he died on the 7th of September, at his house in Russell-street, Covent-garden, leaving be hind him, to the astonishment of his friends, upwards of three thousand pounds, principally the savings out of a very mo derate income, chiefly consisting of his half-pay as a physician of the army. All who knew him speak highly of his bene volence and sensibility, and he was es teemed by men of learning and genius. He seems, however, to have been remarkable for his indolence, which especially unfitted him for success in the practice of the medical profession. The morbid sensibility by which he was so powerfully impressed, gave rise to a languor and listlessness which depressed the vigour of his mind; and to such an extent did this prevail, that the following picture in

on Brain Fever produced by Intoxication, which was printed in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for January 1813, and, with others on Diseased Cervical Vertebræ, &c., materially served to bring his name and talents before the profession and the public. In 1814 he published Facts and Observations relative to the Fever commonly called Puerperal, a second edition of which appeared in 1819. His opinions and doctrine upon the subject of fever, by which he has been principally known in his profession, were first detailed in this publication. This subject engrossed his mind through life, and he has certainly left upon record much important information on this disease, in all its varied types and conditions. In 1816 he published, Practical Illustrations of Typhus Fever, and other Febrile and Inflammatory Diseases, a work which gained for its author great celebrity, and went through three large editions, in three successive years. He looked upon fever as inflammation, demonstrated the efficacy of bleeding in the early stages, and proved the signs of debility and malignancy manifested at the close of the disease to be in proportion to the degree and duration of the previous inflammation. He divided the disorder into simple, inflammatory, and congestive; an useful division, which admits of verification at the bedside of the sick. The success which attended the publication of this work determined Dr. Armstrong to remove from his native place to a more extended sphere of operation in the metropolis. In 1818 he came to London, relying solely upon his abilities and the character they had acquired him for success in practice. This important step in his life has been thus interestingly described: "In October, 1817, he resigned his situation as physician to the Sunderland Dispensary; and in February, 1818, after placing his wife and his two children in lodgings at Durham, he repaired to London, with no other recommendation, than that which his works and reputation afforded him. He took lodgings at No. 38, Great James Street, Bedford Row, where he resided several months alone. This was the most trying part of his life. All those domestic sympathies upon which he so much depended for happiness were far removed from him, and he felt as it were alone in the world, anxious about his present and uncertain of his future fortunes. He never, to the close of his life, courted general society, and had few inducements to mix in public amuse

ments; for his tastes centered in his professional pursuits, and his enjoyments in the bosom of his family, and in the familiar society of a few personal friends. His sensibilities were acute, and his mind simple and discerning in its instincts and desires. He had left a society to which he was attached by the ties of gratitude; and in the oppressive solitude of his present situation he keenly felt the loss of his early friends, and became fully sensible of the hazard to which he had exposed the interests of his family. He has often told me (Dr. Boott) that the loneliness of his situation at times overpowered him ; and that so oppressive was the busy scene around him, in which he stood a stranger, uncared for and unknown, that he sometimes found relief in tears, and tried to drown the consciousness of sorrow, by seeking sleep in his darkened chamber at The energies of his mind, however, sustained him; and he soon elastic from this temporary pressure." In 1818 he put forth Practical Illustrations of the Scarlet Fever, Measles, Pulmonary Consumption, and Chronic Diseases, with Remarks on Sulphureous Waters. A second edition went through the press in the same year. His reputation was therefore maintained by this publication.

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He had not yet, however, been admitted into the Royal London College of Physicians. He presented himself for examination, conformably to its regulations, to obtain the license to practise in London and its suburbs, and he was rejected. This rejection of an eminent practitioner, and a writer of considerable and deserved celebrity, has been generally attributed to his deficiency of classical knowledge, upon which the examiners set much value. On this point, however, it must be remarked neither Dr. Armstrong nor any member of the college has given any information. It is fortunate that in its operation the rejection did not destroy the reputation Dr. Armstrong had acquired, or diminish the zeal either of himself in his profession, or of his friends to assist him: that this did not occur will be manifest by his election to the office of physician to the Fever Hospital of St. Pancras, upon the retirement of Dr. Thomas Bateman. To enable him to hold this appointment without being a licentiate of the London College, it was necessary to suspend the operation of a bye-law of the institution relative to the qualifications of a candidate. This was generously done by the committee of the hospital,

and Dr. Armstrong thus entered upon the practice of the institution.

In 1821 he commenced as a lecturer on the practice of physic at the school founded by the late Mr. Edward Grainger, in the neigbourhood of the Borough Hospitals, known as the Webb-Street School; and few persons were perhaps, on the whole, better able to perform the onerous duties of teaching, or more successful in the result, than Dr. Armstrong. His manner was to pupils peculiarly pleasing and attractive; his diction free and earnest; his order lucid; and the practical part of his subject was ever kept in view. He was one of the most popular teachers in London, and was attended by a very large class. His lectures have been reported in the Lancet; but more accurately given since his decease by a pupil and friend: Lectures on the Morbid Anatomy, Nature, and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Diseases. Edited by Joseph Rix, Lond. 1834, 8vo. Dr. Armstrong also delivered lectures on the Materia Medica, in 1823, and continued them until 1825, when he embodied them in his course on the Practice of Physic. His education had been scanty and his course of reading limited. His lectures were therefore almost entirely composed from his own opportunities of observing the phenomena of disease. Being delivered extempore, he kept alive the attention of his hearers, and he exhibited proofs of his quickness of apprehension and appreciation of facts. He was, however, too declamatory, and his attempted contempt of learning much disfigures his orations. He never failed to embrace any opportunity to hold up to ridicule the learning of schools and colleges, and to treat with neglect the claims of learned practitioners. He speaks of Heberden as a superficial observer of nature; as a popular physician in London, but whose literary productions will soon be forgotten. The flagrant injustice of this opinion cannot be too forcibly condemned; but Heberden's character and talents need no advocate. They are fully displayed in his Commentarii de Morborum Historia et Curatione. Dr. Armstrong's accusations against Dr. Mead and Dr. Cullen are equally groundless and ungenerous. His friend and biographer has thus characterised Dr. Armstrong as a lecturer: "The effect his lectures produced was electric. The energy of his manner, the fine intonations of his voice, the facility and correctness of his diction, the strain of impassioned eloquence which often burst from him,

riveted the attention, and made even those who could not entirely adopt or appropriate his opinions, sensible that he was uttering the deep convictions of his mind; and there was so much of chaste and often of pathetic feeling, so much of the refined sensibilities of his nature blended with his discourse, that those who were compelled to admire his talents felt confidence in his virtues; and while they revered the professor, they loved the man."

The extent of Dr. Armstrong's private practice, and the time necessarily devoted to lecturing, obliged him, in 1824, to retire from the Fever Hospital. He printed in the Medical Intelligencer, in 1822, a paper entitled, Some Observations on the Origin, Nature, and Prevention of Typhus Fever; and in 1823, Some Observations on the Utility of Opium in certain Inflammatory Disorders, which was published in the Transactions of the Associated Apothecaries of England and Wales. These papers were some of the results of his observations, chiefly made at the Fever Hospital, and contain the germ of those opinions which led to very important modifications of his views of typhus, and of his practice in inflammatory diseases. He had expressed a belief that typhus originated solely from contagion; he now maintained that malaria was its primary source, and that its contagious character was very questionable. He viewed the plague in a similar manner.

In 1825 he printed An Address to the Members of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, on the injurious conduct and defective state of that Corporation with reference to Professional Rights, Medical Science, and the Public Health. This address was written in opposition to a monopoly attempted to be set up by the college, in reference to the teaching of anatomy, restricting that duty to the professors of the recognised hospitals of the metropolis, or the appointed professors of anatomy and surgery in the universities of Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, by which laudable competition would be checked, and the formation of new schools prevented. The medical profession generally manifested great disapprobation of the proposed measures, and the bye-law which went to establish it was repealed. In 1826 Dr. Armstrong assisted to form a new school of medicine in Little Dean Street, Soho, in conjunction with an excellent anatomist, the late Mr. Bennett, who had been educated at the university of Dublin, but who was not