570 



CriWIE CURRYING. 



the celebrated Halley. In the West Indian seas, 

 there are some places where a vessel may moor her- 

 self in the midst of a current by dropping a cable, 

 with a sounding lead attached, to a certain known 

 depth. At that depth, there roust, unquestionably, 

 be a current contrary to the one at the surface of the 

 water. Similar circumstances liave been observed 

 in the Sound. There is reason to believe, that the 

 Mediterranean discharges its waters by an inferior or 

 concealed current. Such a mass of ocean water, 

 flowing constantly from the torrid zone towards the 

 northern pole, and, at any given latitude, heated 

 many degrees above the temperature of the adjacent 

 ocean, must exert great influence on the atmosphere. 

 An interesting table, in Darby's View of the United 

 States, Philadelphia, 1828 (page 363), shows this in- 

 fluence in a striking way. See Malte-Brun's Geo- 

 graphy, vol. i., and Humboldt's Personal Narrative. 



CURRIE, JAMES, M. D., the biographer of Burns, 

 was the son of the minister of Kirkpatrick Fleming, 

 near Mofiat, in Dumfries-shire, and was born there on 

 the 31st May, 1736. He received the rudiments of 

 his education at the parish school of Middlebie, and 

 was sent at the age of thirteen to a seminary at Dum- 

 fries, conducted by a Dr Chapman, author of a work 

 on education, in whose house he was boarded, and 

 by whom he was well grounded in mathematics and 

 Practical Geometry. 



Having accompanied his father on a visit to Glas- 

 gow, he was induced to enter there into the service 

 of a company of merchants, who were going out to 

 Virginia on a mercantile speculation. This voyage 

 proved most unfortu|iate, owing to the breaking out 

 of the dissensions between America and the mother 

 country, and he was but indifferently treated by his 

 employers who were soured probably by the failure 

 of their commercial plans. About this time also, he 

 had the misfortune to lose his father, and his mother 

 having died when he was very young he was thus 

 left an orphan. He had now the generosity to re- 

 nounce all claim on the property bequeathed him by 

 his father, and kindly divided it amongst Ids sisters. 

 Abandoning the pursuits of commerce, with which he 

 was sickened, he turned his thoughts towards politics, 

 and espousing the cause of the mother country, he pub- 

 lished a series of letters in an American paper, under 

 the signature of " An Old Man." Soon afterwards 

 liaving gone to reside with his near relation, Dr 

 Currie of Richmond, America, he was decided by 

 his advice to return to his original intention of study- 

 ing medicine. 



In consequence he left America, where he had 

 spent very unprofitably five years of his life, and all 

 direct intercourse with England being then cut off 

 by the war, proceeded round by the West Indies and 

 arrived in London in 1776, whence he went on to 

 Edinburgh, where he pursued his medical studies 

 with great assiduity till 1780. He was now appoint- 

 ed to an ensigncy and assistant surgency in the army 

 through the interest of general Sir William Erskine. 

 But soon thereafter, with a view to obtaining the situ- 

 ation of physician or assistant physician to the for- 

 ces, with an expedition then going out to Jamaica, 

 lie proceeded to Glasgow, where he took his degree 

 as doctor in medicine. Having been disappointed, 

 however, in his views, he was about to go out and 

 settle' himself in the West Indies, when he was at- 

 tacked with a pulmonic complaint, on recovering 

 from which he was induced by the advice of his 

 friends to go and settle at Lirerpool, in October, 

 1780. Here he was soon elected to be one of the 

 physicians to the Infirmary, and rose to high emi- 

 nence in his profession. And here also, in 1783, he 

 married Miss Lucy Wallace, daughter of a respect- 



able merchant, and a lineal descendant of the cele- 

 brated Scottish warrior Sir William Wallace, by 

 whom he had several children. 



In the year 1791, he presented a paper to the 

 Royal Society, " On the remarkable effects of a Ship- 

 wreck on some mariners, with experiments, and ob- 

 servations on the influence of immersion in fresh and 

 salt water, hot and cold, on the powers of the living 

 body," which gained him the honour of being eleeted 

 a Fellow of that learned body. In the yt-ar 17117, In- 

 extended these reflections into a work entitled 

 " Medical reports on the effects of water, cold and 

 warm, as a remedy in fever and other diseases, 

 whether applied to the surface of the body or used 

 internally," a work which extended his reputation 

 as a physician, and effected a considerable revolu- 

 tion in the mode of treating the most fatal and fre- 

 quent class of diseases. 



It was about this time too, that Dr Currie's cele- 

 brated letter to Mr Pitt, appeared under the signa- 

 ture of Jasper Wilson, which, although never avowed 

 by him, yet procured an accession of great literary 

 fame, and a host of powerful enemies. 



Having made an excursion into Scotland in 170?, 

 he liad become personally acquainted with Robert 

 Burns, with whose wonderful powers he was fasci- 

 nated, and upon the death of the poet he was induced 

 at the request of his old friend Mr Syme, to become 

 the editor of a complete edition of his works, to 

 which he added a memoir. This work added pro- 

 digiously to Dr Currie's reputation both as a writer 

 and a man. 



In the year 1784, Dr Currie's life had been threat- 

 ened by a severe pulmonary attack, which, after ho- 

 vering over him for upwards of twenty years, return- 

 ed upon him with great severity in 1804, and obliged 

 him to relinquish his practice at Liverpool. He spent 

 the ensuing winter alternately at Bath and Clifton, 

 and feeling himself somewhat recovered, was induced 

 in the following spring to take a house in Bath, and 

 commence practice there. But all his complaints 

 soon returning with increased violence, he went as a 

 last resource to Sidmouth in Devonshire, where, after 

 much suffering, borne with manly fortitude and resig- 

 nation, he expired on the 31st August, in the fiftieth 

 year of his age. On opening his body, his disease 

 was ascertained to have arisen from an enlargement 

 and flaccidity of the heart, accompanied by a remark- 

 able wasting of the left lung, but without either tu- 

 bercle or ulceration. Great as a physician, amiable, 

 estimable, generous, and humane as a man, Dr Currie 

 was conspicuous in every relation of social and do- 

 mestic life, and died lamented by all those who knew 

 him either as a writer or as a physician. Most of 

 the public institutions, literary or benevolent, of Liver- 

 pool were either suggested, improved, or perfected 

 by his advice or assistance. 



CURRYING is the art of dressing cow-hides, 

 calves'-skins, seal-skins, &c., principally for shoes; 

 and this is done either upon the flesh or the grain. 

 In dressing leather for shoes upon the flesh, the first 

 operation is soaking the leather in water until it is 

 thoroughly wet : then the flesh side is shaved on a 

 beam about seven or eight inches broad, with a 

 knife of peculiar construction, to a proper substance, 

 according to the custom of the country and the uses 

 to which it is to be applied. This is one of the most 

 curious and laborious operations in the whole busi- 

 ness of currying. The knife used for this purpose 

 is of a rectangular form, with two handles, one at 

 each end, and a double edge. After the leather 

 is properly shaved, it is thrown into the water again, 

 and scoured upon a board or stone commonly ap- 

 propriated to that use Scouring is performed by 



