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in distinguishing and relieving disease. His lively conversation and 

 ever-ready joke were often more soothing than anodyne or cordial ; 

 and when roused by urgent symptoms, he was unequalled in re- 

 sources, as he was devoted in attentions. As a consulting physician, 

 his great powers were particularly conspicuous. Rapid and clear in 

 diagnosis, inexhaustible in therapeutics, self-relying, never dis- 

 couraged, never '^ giving up the ship,'' he was the physician of 

 physicians for an emergency. 



At the bedside. Chapman dismissed speculative theories of morbid 

 action. His remedies were drawn from observation and experience; 

 and no man wielded more dexterously and successfully the known 

 resources of his time. In our day, a less depressing therapeutics 

 has come into fashion, and the means of combating disease are 

 doubtless more numerous than were in Chapman's hands. But, 



"Take him for all in all, 

 We shall not look upon his like again." 



He was singularly indifferent to the emoluments of his profession. 

 Careless in his accounts, resolute in refusing bills to his numerous 

 family connections and personal friends, always moderate in his 

 charges, he realized scarcely a tithe of the receipts which some of his 

 successors in fashionable practice have rolled up. No more generous 

 and less covetous man ever lived. 



Public teaching early attracted Chapman's aspirations. Very soon 

 after his return from Europe he gave a private course on Obstetrics, 

 a branch which had then merely a nominal place in the lectures at 

 the University. His success led, in 1807-8, to a connection with 

 James, already known as a teacher of obstetrics. In 1810, the Pro- 

 fessorship of Midwifery in the University was conferred upon James, 

 with an understanding that he should be assisted by Chapman. His 

 introduction into the University was now fixed; but an independent 

 chair was not placed within his reach until, in 1813, the death of 

 Rush occasioned a rearrangement of the school. 



Barton, who had long filled the chair of Materia Medica with dis- 

 tinguished eclat, was induced to exchange it for that of the Theory 

 and Practice; and the former chair, thus made vacant, was confer- 

 red upon Chapman. 



The transfer of Barton to a department which was congenial neither 

 to his taste nor studies, could scarcely have promoted the interests 

 of the University, or his own reputation. His health, too, proved 



