280 The Gold-Headed Cane. 



He pursued the track of his eminent predecessor with much 

 success : in the happy association of easy elegance of style, 

 of entertaining narrative, and of profound criticism, these 

 authors maintain the first place amongst their rivals in the 

 same career, and have distanced both Cabanis and Sprengel. 

 But we may remark, that the obscure fate which the 

 Memoirs of Aikin have incurred, — the rarity of the History 

 of Freind, and the long interval which has elapsed since a 

 new edition has been demanded, afford a severe evidence of 

 the diminished value which the medical public of this coun- 

 try attach to the annals and literature of their profession. 

 The press of Germany and France, on the contrary, is daily 

 teeming with books of this description, — an abundance 

 whose origin is partly to be traced to the larger proportion 

 of regularly organised medical schools, where the ablest pro- 

 fessors are contented, on the recompense of a scanty salary, to 

 devote an entire life to the cultivation and diffusion of medical 

 erudition. In most of the German Universities a professor 

 is found, whose sole or principal office is to illustrate the 

 history of medicine. The present ingenious volume adds a 

 new link to the chain commenced by Freind, and continued 

 by Aikin : less practical in its details, it is more calculated to 

 attract the general reader ; and the faithful record which it 

 exhibits of the brilliant progress, the public and private 

 virtues, and the patriotic influence of a long series of physi- 

 cians, must tend to impress on his mind an increased respect 

 for the profession at large, and a more attentive considera- 

 tion of its interests and importance. 



We are first ushered into the dignified presence of Rad- 

 cliffe, and accompany him on his visits to King William and 

 Queen Mary, as well as in less awful peregrinations, where 

 he sometimes drew on the pharmacopoeia of his bold and 

 ready humour for the most efficient remedies. His prog- 

 nosis was singular in confidence and success. He was once 

 sent for to attend the Duke of Beaufort, at Bodminton, but 

 declared to the gentleman who brought the summons, that 

 his presence was unnecessary, since the duke had died at a 

 particular hour on the preceding day — an assertion which 

 was verified by the messenger on his return. Radcliffe had 

 occasion to see the King, after his return from the continent 

 in 1697, and insinuated to him that he ought not to indulge 

 the hope of a speedy recovery; but added, " if your majesty 

 will forbear making long visits to the Earl of Bradford, 

 (where, to tell the truth, the King was wont to drink very 

 hard,) FU engage to make you live three or four years longer; 



