54 "^"2 BEE, OR Jan. isj 



the poflefTion of his family, from notes taken by one 

 who attended there. It is probable the public may be 

 favoured with thefe at feme future period. And if al-. 

 lownnce be made for the length of time that has elapf- 

 ed fince their delivery, and the confequent advance* 

 that have been made in this branch of fcience fmcc 

 then, and the imperft£tionsarifir.g from the inaccuracy 

 of the perfon who took down notes of them, it is not 

 imagined they will do any difcredit to his- memory. 

 The fame extenfive views that charatVerife'd ail his ci- 

 ther letl^ures, are difcoverable here ; and the fame fti-. 

 mulus to a£l:ive exertions which fo ftrongly marked his 

 prelections, are equally ftriking in thefe. They point 

 out the path that ought to be purfued for the attain- 

 ment of knowledge, rather than teach the knowledge 

 itfelf. And the writer of this article can freely fay, 

 that he has been more indebted to thefe leftures for in- 

 ducing him to think juftly on the fubjecSt of agricul- 

 ture, than to all the books he ever read, though he alfa 

 did frequently differ in opinion from his preceptor on 

 parucular points. 



In the month of February 1 763, Do£tor Alfton died, 

 after having begun his ufual ccurfe of lectures on the 

 materia medica ; and the magiftrates of Edinburgh, as 

 patrons of that profeilbrfhip in the univerfity, appoint- 

 ed Doctor Cullen to that chair, requcfting that he 

 would finilh the courfe of leftures that had been begun 

 for that feafon. This he agreed to do ; and though he 

 ■was under a neceflity of going on M'ith the courfe in a 

 few days after he was nominated, he did not once think 

 of reading the leftures of his predecelTor, but re- 

 folved to deliver a new courfe entirely his own. The 

 popularity of Cullen at this time may be guefled at by 

 the increafe of new ftudents who came to attend his 

 courfe in addition to the eight or ten who had entered 

 to Doctor Alfton. The new ftudents exceeded a hun- 

 dred. An imperfeft copy of thefe leftures thus fabri* 

 eated in hafte, having been pubiiihed, the Dodor 



