272 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"<i S. No 40., Oct. 4. '56. 



ring his scat of government from the mountains 

 of Caernarvon (each, as Warrington writes, a 

 natural fortress), into tlie open and unprotected 

 country of Anglesea. Southey endeavours to ac- 

 count for it by supposing, that he removed to that 

 island in order to be able to defend it more ad- 

 vantageously against the incursions of the Danes ; 

 but by this supposition the difficulty is only par- 

 tially obviated. Is it not more natural to suppose 

 that Rhodri Mawr conquered the Gael of Mona, 

 and then removed into the subjected territory to 

 keep his new subjects in submission ? This 

 would be in exact accordance with the course 

 commonly pursued by conquerors ; and its not 

 being recorded in contemporary chronicles is no 

 reasonable objection against its truth ; as we 

 should not have been aware even of the existence 

 of the Gael in Anglesea at all, had not the above 

 quoted passage in Golyddan been fortunately 

 preserved. 



May we not find another unnoted memorial of 

 the Gael in Watling Street ? This name is said 

 to be a Saxon corruption of the Cymric Gwyde- 

 linsarn (the way of the Gael, see Thierry's Nor- 

 man Conquest, vol. i. p. 70., note) ; and it is 

 supposed that it was so called because it led to 

 the country of the Gwyddyl::= Ireland. It is 

 much more probable that it was the work of that 

 people, during its dominancy in South Britain ; 

 just as were the houses whose ruins, two cen- 

 turies ago, were called by the Welsh the houses 

 of the Gael. (iVbr. Conq., vol. i. p. 2., note). 



I have somewhat diverged from the matter 

 with which I commenced ; but as I am not aware 

 that the presence of the Gaelic race in Anglesea 

 and Cornwall has been hitherto remarked, and as 

 it may be of considerable importance in future 

 historical researches, the digression will I hope be 

 pardoned, Edwaed Wbst. 



3. Pump Kow, Old Street Road. 



MALACHI THRUSTON,^lMP.D., OF EXETEH. 



(2"" S. ii. 190.) 



The following particulars of Malachi Thruston, 

 M.D., will probably afford the information re- 

 quired by your correspondent E. L. No notice 

 is taken of this distinguished physician in any 

 general or medical biography with which I am 

 acquainted, and the few incidents in his career 

 which I now forward were collected long since, 

 with the view to supply a deficiency not credit- 

 able to our medical literature. His birthplace, 

 parentage, preliminary education, and death, have 

 hitherto eluded my research. Information on 

 these points would go far to complete his bio- 

 graphy ; it may perhaps be supplied by some of 

 your readers. The books of Sidney Sussex Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, would supply some of the facts, 



but the date of his death must be sought in Devon- 

 shire, and I believe at Exeter. 



Malachi Thruston was of Sidney Sussex Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, and took his degrees in arts, as 

 a member of that house : A.B. 1649-50; A.M. 

 1653. He subsequently became a fellow of Caius 

 College, but at what date is uncertain, probably, 

 as suggested by the learned master of that Col- 

 lege, Dr. Guest, during the Commonwealth, when 

 the entries were made very irregularly. lie was 

 created Doctor of Medicine by mandate of Charles 

 II., dated Dec. 17, 1664, and the degree was 

 actually conferred on the 13th of January follow- 

 ing. Dr. Thruston then settled at Exeter, and ia 

 1670 his celebrated treatise De Respirationis Usu 

 pi'imario diatriba issued from the London press. 

 Of the doctor's professional career in Devonshire 

 no records remain. If success in physic was at 

 all times commensurate with merit, we should not 

 hesitate in concluding that his practice in Exeter 

 was considerable. To say nothing of the internal 

 evidence Dr. Thruston's Vork affords of his at- 

 tainments as a scholar and physician, we are as- 

 sured by Dr. Musgrave, the author of the Anti- 

 quitates Britanno Belgicm, a very competent judge 

 of professional merit, that he was a man of sound 

 judgment and justly ranked among the most cele- 

 brated physicians of his age, "erectiori vir ingenio, 

 in medicis fevi celeberrimis," and again, " nemo 

 unquara medicus illustrior, neu qui arti plus tri- 

 buerat." 



The talents of this accomplished man were 

 eventually obscured by insanity.. On December 

 18, 1697, he was professiohally visited by Dr. 

 Musgrave, from whose narrative of the case (/)e 

 Arthritide Symptomatica Dissertatio, p. 83.) many 

 of these particulars have been derived. Dr. 

 Thruston was then a septuagenarian. His malady 

 was attributed to the combined influence of a 

 nervous temperament, an injury to the head in 

 childhood, excess of study, the over use of coffee, 

 and gout. " His adjici oportebit," says Musgrave, 

 " cselibatum sive nimiam castitatem." The dis- 

 ease presented lucid intervals, and Musgrave's 

 visit was made during one of them. For some 

 time the doctor's conversation was perfectly 

 rational, but ere long decided evidences of in- 

 sanity were manifested. 



The Diatriba, Dr. Thruston's only published 

 work, is a logically constructed, original and 

 argumentative essay on an abstruse but most im- 

 portant physiological question. The language is 

 that of a scholar, well chosen, correct, and often 

 elegant, the references and quotations frequent 

 and appropriate, affording ample proof of the ex- 

 tent of his erudition, medical as well as general. 

 Diffidence and modesty characterise this essay, 

 and my impression, after a careful perusal, is, that 

 it was the work of an original thinker, and of an 

 amiable and accomplished man. 



