MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 51 



curiosity, by delivering public lectures on the epi- 

 demic, thereby to combat every injurious prejudice, 

 and spread that intelligence which could not fail to 

 be productive of benefit. He also established a new 

 society, the specific object of which was to promote 

 experiment and inquiry into the best modes of op- 

 posing the dreadful scourge. His course of public 

 lectures was not confined to .the mere epidemic, but 

 he took occasion to prefix to it several lectures on 

 the structure of oxen, which was only in keeping 

 with many of his other plans for exciting a taste for 

 natural history. These lectures were highly popu- 

 lar, and excited the keenest interest in all classes of 

 the community. They were immediately published, 

 and were speedily translated into German, and so 

 spread over the Empire, which had too much rea- 

 son to feel deeply interested in the subject. The 

 early lectures were occupied by a regular demonstra- 

 tion of the anatomy of the animal, with the physio- 

 logy, including the phenomena and the uses of ru- 

 mination, &c. ; and the later lectures were dedicated 

 to a description of the epidemic itself. This was 

 pursued in his usual regular and ample method, in- 

 cluding the history, nature, symptoms, and cure of 

 the disorder. Concerning the history, he seems to 

 have ransacked the records of history, and supplies 

 references and notices from before the Christian era, 

 concerning those epidemics which, at various periods, 

 had attacked the lower animals. He quoted from 

 the elder Gate's work on agriculture, from Colu- 



