which he himself was most disposed to follow. Upon proceeding with his task he found inconsistencies and deficiencies in it which were irreconcileable with every just principle of classification his genera, orders, and classes being not only wanting in the essential qualities of logical dependence and sequence, but such as to exclude altogether a great number of diseases which found no proper place in his system. It is an objection, however, to all classifications of diseases that their characters are not invariable and persistent; that they change with changes of climate and place, with the habits of society, and even with the lapse of time; but at the same time, it must be allowed, though perfect accuracy may not be attainable, that our general views of the science of medicine will be advanced the nearer we approach to it.

In an age when the systematic study of medicine was so much neglected, it was not to be expected that a work of this nature, so much of which was occupied with speculations apparently so remote from immediate practical applications, would be received with much favour. A contemporary reviewer, who was a fair representative of that large class of mankind who look to the results of science much more than its principles, quotes with marked approbation, in his notice of this work, a sneer of Dr. Fordyce that many ingenious young men were familiar with enteritis and carditis and nephritis, but bring them to the bedside of a patient, and it would quickly appear that they could not tell one itis from another itis. If it could have been made to appear that the knowledge of the theoretical characters of those diseases was the reason of the ignorance of such persons of their practical symptoms, the observation would have been just; but let

a physician, whether young or old-to whom the theoretical and practical characters of these diseases are equally familiar, and who can also reason correctly from the effects which he observes to their causes-be placed in the same situation with one who has facts and the routine of ordinary practice but no principles to guide him; and it is hardly necessary to say which of the two will be prepared to act with confidence and safety in the various phases, sometimes new and unexpected, which all such diseases are apt to assume.

The Sketch of Animal Chemistry, which is given in the Appendix of this work, was translated from the Swedish of Berzelius, by the aid of a grammar and dictionary, without any previous acquaintance with the language ; his knowledge of German and of the general structure of languages, aided by a perfect familiarity with the subject and his usual sagacity, was sufficient to guide him. There is found amongst his papers a letter from this illustrious chemist, most gratefully acknowledging this service, and expressing his admiration of the skill and correctness with which the task had been executed. "Tell me," he proceeds, "how is it possible for the same person to possess so deep and comprehensive a knowledge of two sciences so widely different as Natural Philosophy and Medicine, with its subordinate sciences of Anatomy and Physiology? When I reflect that Chemistry constitutes my only pursuit, and that nevertheless I am daily learning how much has been done in that science that has escaped my inquiry, I marvel how you can have had time enough to go over all that you must have required to read in order to produce your Lectures on Natural Philosophy and this Medical Work." The translation is interspersed with many original observations and additions, in one of which he

combats the inference drawn by the author, that the crystalline lens-being soluble in water-cannot be muscular; a conclusion which has been elsewhere noticed.a

A new edition of this work was printed in 1823, when the author parted with the copyright for one hundred pounds he adds-in noticing the fact-the remark, not altogether destitute of truth, that it was too good a book to be worth more; it was not adapted in fact for popular reading. New references to the later medical journals were inserted, in this new edition, and an Essay on Palpitations was added, which first appeared in the fifth volume of the Medical Transactions of the College of Physicians in London.

In the Quarterly Review we find five articles by Young on medical subjects; and several more, though shorter, and of a slighter texture, were contributed by him to the Imperial Review at an earlier period. The article on Insanity, in the Third Number of the first of these Reviews, is an essay of great merit, viewing the subject in its moral and metaphysical, as well as its medical bearings; it was written on the suggestion of his friends, Mr. George Ellis and Sir Walter Scott, and not without some ulterior views to an appointment under the department of Lunacy in the Court of Chancery. His other medical articles, though in all cases giving evidences of a thorough mastery of the subjects upon which he was writing, do not generally possess the additional merit of being interesting to general as well as professional readers."

• Supra, p. 42.

b The subjects of them are, Jones on the Gout, vol. iii.; Blackall on Dropsies Adams on Ectropium, vol. xiii; an article on the Yellow Fever was printed but never published.

The last of his medical publications was 'A Practical and Historical Essay on Consumptive Diseases,' which appeared in 1815. It is a condensed and admirably arranged abstract of everything that has been said and done with regard to consumption. It was written and published within a period of nine months from the time that it was begun, and was undertaken with a view to the possible extension of his practice in a form of disease which is prevalent amongst the higher classes in this country. The work was one of great interest and value, though it failed to accomplish the ulterior object for which it was designed; and at a later period of life, when his circumstances were more independent, he was disposed to congratulate himself that he had thus escaped the danger of lapsing into a species of charlatanism which is sometimes the fate of those who restrict their practice to particular classes of diseases.

CHAPTER IX.

PHILOLOGICAL ESSAYS. REVIEWS.

THE varied phases presented by Dr. Young's researches make it equally convenient to the biographer and his readers, to depart occasionally from the strict order of time, and to consider them in groups, by which subjects of a similar kind may be brought in some degree into connection with each other. This is the course which I have partially followed in the preceding pages, in devoting separate chapters to his Optical, Mathematical and Physical, and Medical writings; and I shall now proceed, in conformity with the same principle, to notice his philological researches, reserving those relating to the hieroglyphics of Egypt, on account of their great extent and importance, to the following chapter.

More than fourteen years had elapsed since Dr. Young quitted Edinburgh-where he first became known in connection with Greek literature, by the selections from the Anthologia which he made for the second volume of the Analecta of Professor Dalzel, and the notes by which they were accompanied when an article appeared in the Quarterly Review, which excited more than common attention amongst scholars and men of letters. The subject of it was the Herculanensia, a splendid work, containing several learned philological and antiquarian dissertations relating to