BAILLIE. 



377 



long since ceased, the English bailiffs are only a kind 

 of subordinate officers of justice, like the French 

 huissiers. Every sheriff has some of them under 

 him, for whom he is answerable. In some cities, 

 tlie highest municipal officer yet bears this name, as 

 the high bailiff of Westminster. In London, the 

 lord mayor is at the same time bailiff (which title he 

 bore before the present became usual), and adminis- 

 ters, in this quality, the criminal jurisdiction of the 

 city, in the court of Old Bailey, where there are, 

 ;i initially, eight sittings of the court, for the city of 

 London and the county of Middlesex. Usually, the 

 recorder of London supplies his place as judge. In 

 some instances, the term bailiff, in England, is ap- 

 plied to the chief magistrates of towns, or to the 

 commanders of particular castles, as that of Dover. 



The term 6ailiie, in Scotland, is applied to a magis- 

 trate of a burgji, having powers very similar to those 

 of a justice ot peace. 



Among the Teutonic order of knights, and in the 

 German division of the knights of St John, the do- 

 minions of the order, and with them the knights, 

 were divided into districts (bailiwicks), over each of 

 which a commander presided. The single houses of 

 the order were called commanderies. 



BAILLIE, Matthew, M. D. ; an eminent physician 

 and anatomist, was born on the 27th October, 1761, 

 in the manse of Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His 

 father was the Rev. James Baillie, D. D., then mi- 

 nister of the parish of Shotts (a place remarkable at 

 that time, as being one of the most sterile spots in 

 the Lowlands of Scotland), and afterwards professor 

 of divinity in the university of Glasgow. His mother 

 was Dorothea, daughter of Mr John Hunter of Kil- 

 bride, in the county of Lanark, and sister of the two 

 celebrated anatomists, Dr William and Mr John 

 Hunter, of London. 



After having received the rudiments of his educa- 

 tion under his parents' superintendence, in 1773, 

 when in his thirteenth year, he was placed at the 

 university of Glasgow, where he distinguished him- 

 self. In 1779, having been appointed to an exhibi- 

 tion or bursary, he went to Baliol college, Oxford, 

 on the same foundation where Adam Smith and other 

 eminent Scotsmen had preceded him ; and, when of 

 the usual standing, he was admitted to his degrees 

 in arts and physic, having obtained that of M. D. in 

 1789. 



While yet keeping his terms at the university, in 

 the year 1780, Dr Baillie went to London, and com- 

 menced his medical and anatomical studies under his 

 maternal uncles, Dr William and Mr John Hunter, 

 then lecturers in London, and as he resided in the 

 house of the former, he was employed to make the 

 necessary anatomical preparations for the purposes of 

 illustrating and demonstrating the human structure. 

 Some time before Dr Hunter's death, which took 

 place in March, 1783, Dr Baillie had become the 

 chief demonstrator and teacher of practical anatomy, 

 and afterwards joint lecturer in the theatre of Wind- 

 mill street with Mr Cruickshank, who, during Dr 

 Hunter's life, had also been associated hi giving these 

 lectures. Dr Baillie commenced lecturing in 1784-5, 

 and soon acquired the highest reputation as a teacher, 

 to which character his arduous labours in the forma- 

 tion of nearly eleven hundred anatomical preparations 

 greatly contributed. In the year 1787, Dr Baillie 

 was elected one of the physicians of St George's hos- 

 pital, and held that office for thirteen years. In the 

 year 1789, he was admitted a candidate at the college 

 of physicians, and in the following year a fellow 

 thereof. He served the office of censor in 1792 and 

 1797, and that of one of the commissioners for the 

 inspection of mad-houses in 1794 and 1795. 



Dr Baillie was but little known to the public as a 



physician till the year 1798, when his intimate friend, 

 Dr David Pitcairn, having been compelled by illness 

 to repair to Lisbon for the benefit of a milder climate, 

 Dr Baillie was introduced to the patients of hu 

 friend, and very soon after felt himself placed at the 

 very acme of his profession, being applied to by the 

 first persons of rank and fortune in the united kingdom. 



His introduction to George III. took place in con- 

 sequence of his attending the duke of Gloucester 

 during his last illness, ana on the first vacancy, which 

 happened in 1810, he was nominated one of his ma- 

 jesty's physicians in ordinary, and received the offer 

 of a baronetage, which he was induced to decline. 

 Soon afterwards, being at the very height of his 

 practice, his professional income amounted to 10,000 

 per annum ; a sum which in those days was reckoned 

 quite unprecedented, although several medical men 

 now in London are believed to receive much more. 



His work on " the Morbid Anatomy of some of 

 the most important parts of the Human Body," had 

 previously made him well known over the whole 

 continent, and the reputation he had acquired, 

 not only for consummate anatomical knowledge, 

 but for sound and unerring judgment in the dis- 

 tinction of obscure, intricate, and doubtful cases of 

 internal disease, joined to his quiet, unobtrusive, and 

 gentle manners, gave an authority and weight to all 

 his opinions, particularly amongst his professional 

 brethren, which was quite unprecedented. Indeed, 

 it may be safely affirmed, that no physician since the 

 days of Dr Sydenham, had ever attained such an as- 

 cendancy over the public mind as that enjoyed by 

 the subject of this memoir. Eminent as a physician, 

 those who knew Dr Baillie concurred in asserting 

 that he was not less distinguished as a man. Sim- 

 plicity, singleness of heart, and ingenuousness, were 

 the leading features of his character. He was quick 

 of apprehension, and expressed himself with perspi- 

 cuity and readiness, and had such an entire command 

 of thought and language, that he has been known, 

 when a lecturer, to change the subject of his lecture 

 at the moment of delivering it, and to give at once a 

 lecture which had not been previously studied or 

 prepared. His judgment was remarkably correct, 

 and his opinion and advice, therefore, upon all sub- 

 jects, were of great value. He had the power of 

 reasoning clearly and powerfully, but on many occa- 

 sions, he seemed to arrive at his conclusion by a sort 

 of tact, rather than to make his way to it by argu- 

 ment. His mind was always more readily engaged 

 by what was useful, than by what was merely curious 

 or ingenious. In society he was remarkable for 

 being frank, good humoured, and kind, whilst the 

 warmth of his manner and expression, indicative of 

 the interest he felt in all around him, set every one 

 at their ease, and called forth their best and happiest 

 feelings. His general knowledge enabled him to 

 bear a part in any conversation that took place ; and 

 in spite of the distraction of his overwhelming pro- 

 fessional engagements, he found time to make him- 

 self acquainted with all those new publications which 

 excited a general interest. Never was there a man 

 more disinterested, fair, candid, or generous; nor 

 one whose natural elevation of mind raised him more 

 above the reach of whatever is base, sordid, or selfish. 

 Of this the following anecdote, related by Mr Bell in 

 the introductory lecture to his course of anatomy, 

 affords a splendid proof. " While still a young man, 

 and not affluent, his uncle William dying, left him 

 the small family estate of Long Calderwood. We all 

 know of the unhappy misunderstanding that existed 

 between Dr Hunter and his brother John. Dr Bail- 

 lie felt tliat he owed this bequest to the partiality of 

 his uncle, and made it over to John Hunter. The 

 latter long refused, but, in the end. the family estate 



