470 



being occasionally employed as the eciitor 

 of different po|)ii!ai' works, he appears 

 never to have lelaxed in attention to any 

 of those questions vfhich agitated tlie 

 medical world; as it is evident, from his 

 various communications to the London 

 Medical and Pliy,«ical Journal for a series 

 of years, as well as his criticisms on diifer- 

 ent foreign publications, which likewise 

 appeared in that useful work. Dr. Hall, 

 from the time of being a student in Edin- 

 burgh, enjoyed the friendship, and was in 

 habits of t'amiliar correspondence, with 

 the senior Dr. Duncan, the eminent pro- 

 fessor of the Institutes of Medicine, &C. 

 in that University ; he also corresponded 

 with many of his literary contemporaries, 

 and some of his letters on medical subjects 

 appear in the works of Dr. Kiu:;lake, &c. 

 We have now to record an event, which, 

 for a time, clouded Dr. Hall's prospects, 

 and materially altered his destinatiun in 

 after life. Basely deceived by one in 

 whom he had implicitly confided, he was 

 defrauded of the greatest part of his pro- 

 perty, and involved in heavy law-ex- 

 penses in fruitless efforts to regain it. 

 This weighty loss, conjoined with other 

 considerations, induced him again to turn 

 bis attention to the service, and he entered 

 the medical department of the army. 

 His duties as an active medical officer 

 now wholly occupying his time, he sel- 

 dom, for the next ten or twelve years, ap- 

 peared before the public in his literary 

 capacity. When that unfortunate mission 

 by land and sea, which cost the lives of 

 so many brave and able men was deter- 

 mined on, lor the exploration of the 

 Niger, Dr. Hall was the medical officer 

 appointed to accompany the military 

 division of the expedition ; and his medi- 

 cal experience, his ardent zeal for the ad- 

 vancement of science, his accurate know- 

 ledge of botany, which, with him, had 

 always been a favourite study, joined to 

 habits of activity, and rigid temperance, 

 doubtless well fitted him for the arduous 

 task. Unfortunately, however, in the 

 outward bound passage, Dr. Hall was 

 precipitated into the hold of the vessel, 

 which had been left open by the inatten- 

 tion of the ship's steward; by which acci- 

 dent his breast-bone, and several of the 

 ribs, were dreadfully fractured, and he 

 received a severe contusion on his left 

 temple. Such, however, was his ardour 

 for the promotion of the enterprise, that, 

 disregarding the advice of a medical 

 officer on-boaid the same vessel, he re- 

 fused to be put on-shore at Jersey ; and, 

 at the utmost risk, proceeded on his 

 voyage. On landing at Senegal, though 

 still feeble from the effects of the acci- 

 dent, he enjoyed not a moment's relaxa- 

 tion from duty, as most of the medical 

 staff on that station were either recently 

 dead, or confined by indisposition. No 



JJr. Robert Hall. [June 1, 



wonder, then, that at the end of a few 

 weeks. Dr. Hall was so reduced by 

 a severe attack of disease, that a removal 

 to a more salubrious climate was consi- 

 dered as affording him the only chance of 

 prolonged existence. He was therefore 

 carried on ship-board, and sent to Ma- 

 deira by the way of the Cape de Verd 

 islands with slender expectations that he 

 would survive the voyage. Of the hospi- 

 tality and kindness of Mr. Keir, a British 

 merchant resident at Madeira, the writer 

 of this article has often heard Dr. Hall 

 express himself in terms of the warmest 

 gratitude; and, after a residence of some 

 months in the house of this gentleman, he 

 so far recovered as to be able to under- 

 take the homeward voyage. It was at 

 Madeira that he first learned the fate of 

 Captain Tuckey, and his associates ; and 

 soon after heard of the death of his own 

 commander. Major Peddie, which occur- 

 red two weeks after he himself had left 

 the African shores, and was successively 

 followed by that of most of the British 

 officers attached to the mission. Several 

 years have elapsed since Dr. Hall re- 

 ttnned from Africa, but his health was 

 never fully restored. He was sedulously 

 attended jjy his friend. Dr. George Pear- 

 son ; but every thing that friendship could 

 suggest, or that medicine could achieve, 

 was vainly tried for the alleviation of his 

 complaints, and he at lengih fell a sure, 

 though lingering; victim, to the conjoint 

 effects of an imsalubrious climate, and the 

 accidental injury above related. To 

 conclude : The subjoined list of a few of 

 the essays and papers by Dr. Hall, are 

 alone sufficient to entitle him to rank 

 high as a medical philosopher. Re- 

 marks on Cow-Po\', itc. published 

 in the four last vols, of Duncan's Medical 

 Annals, Edinburgh; Observations on the 

 Plague, and other Pestilential Fevers; 

 Ditto on INIahou's Work on Legal Medi- 

 cine; Remarks on Monnet on Cataract ; 

 Essay on the Influenza or, Epidemic 

 Catarrh of 1803; Observations on Hydro- 

 phobia; Farther Remarks on Ditto; 

 Cases of Chickcn-Pox mistaken for .Small- 

 Pox ; Translation of Sabatier's Cases of 

 Hydrophobia; Ditto of a Paper on 

 Trades prejudicial to Health; Ditto of 

 Proust's Essay on Lichen Islandictis; 

 Ditto on Dumas's Essay on the Transfor- 

 mation of Organs ; Accoimt of a singular 

 Case of Abstinence; Observations on a 

 .Spanish Work on the Yellow Fever ; 

 Cases of Icterus and Hepatitis cured by 

 the use of Nitric Acid ; Cursory Remarks 

 on Dr. Humphry's Case of Yaws ; A Vin- 

 dication of Dr. Johnstone's Claim to the 

 Discovery of Mineral Acid Fumigations; 

 Observations on the Irritability of the 

 Lactuca Sativa ; Ditto on the Heat 

 evolved by the Arum Cardifoliuin, &c. ; 

 Cases of Burns and Scalds treated by 



Cold 



