MEMOIR OF THE LATE DR. HENRY. 105 
have conferred so much literary glory on this 
town and on this society, the late Dr. Ferriar. 
In his invaluable “ Medical Histories,” the sys- 
tematized records of his experience in our great 
public charities, Dr. Ferriar, has left to the pro- 
fession, the finest existing models of what such 
narratives of disease ought to be—in style; sim- 
ple, concise, and energetic, though not reject- 
ing on suitable occasions (as in his moving essay 
on the Treatment of the Dying) the warmer 
colouring suggested by deep feeling ;—in sub- 
stance; deriving general pathological conclu- 
sions, from the accumulated and methodized 
results of an experience no less ample than saga- 
ciously directed and interpreted. As a hospital 
physician, Dr. Ferriar seems to have possessed, 
in an eminent degree, the faculty of at once 
eliciting truth from the obtuseness or reluct- 
ance of the suffering poor, by his abrupt and 
pointed interrogatories, and by his impatience 
of all irrelevant matter. He was especially 
distinguished by strength and rectitude of 
understanding, by manners perhaps somewhat 
unbending and severe, by a high sense of hon- 
our, and by a fearless and dignified moral bear- 
ing. To his pupil, his manner was always 
friendly and encouraging ;—and out of this 
early intercourse issued the sources of mutual 
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