LORD KENYON. 393 



dictated their former laws of admission, still 

 exist with undiminished force. Whenever, 



Indies, had, in part at least, been owing to their want of 

 proper medical aid, it necessarily became an object of great 

 national concern, that the immense armament, which was 

 preparing, in 1795, to be sent to those countries under the 

 command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, should be provided 

 with able physicians. In this state of things, Dr. William 

 Wright of Edinburgh was mentioned to a person in power, 

 as being well acquainted with the diseases of the West In- 

 dies j in consequence of which, a gentleman, connected with 

 administration, authorised a common friend to make him the 

 offer of being a physician to the armament. Having signified 

 his willingness to accept this appointment, he was desired 

 to remain in Edinburgh, until his services should be required. 

 It is proper to say somewhat here concerning the fitness of 

 Dr. Wright, for the situation to which he was designed. He 

 was a fellow of the college of Physicians of Edinburgh j and had 

 formerly served his Majesty seventeen years, chiefly in the 

 West Indies. He had, besides, practised medicine in Ja- 

 maica, while unconnected with the army, for thirteen years, 

 during great part of which time he was Physician General to 

 the militia of the island. His talents had not, in the mean 

 while, been confined to the cultivation of the practical part 

 of his profession. Having included natural history among 

 the objects of his study, he had, during his residence in 

 Jamaica, explored almost the whole of it, in his attempts to 

 extend the limits of that science, and had in consequence 

 made many important discoveries of plants, some of which 

 had been published in the Philosophical Transactions of 

 London and Edinburgh, and various other works. By these 

 means, he had become well known to many of the learned 

 in different parts of the world, and had been admitted a 

 member of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, 



