46 CONNECTION OF BATH WITH THE 



correspondence with the most eminent physicians, 

 naturalists, and philosophers of his age, and who him- 

 self contributed to the advancement of science and phi- 

 losophy. That all or any of them were great original 

 discoverers can hardly be maintained ; but these were 

 men who fiilly came up to the standard of philosophical 

 knowledge in their own age, who maintained in their 

 day the reputation of Bath for science, and who pre- 

 pared the way for their more able successors. [12] 



At the beginning of the next century were Cheyne 

 and the elder Oliver, both Fellows of the Royal 

 Society, and both contributing by their writings to 

 the advancement of knowledge in the profession to 

 the practice of which they were devoted. A second 

 Oliver succeeded, not inferior to the first ; and during 

 the whole of that century, among the medical prac- 

 titioners of Bath, were many who through different 

 channels communicated to the public curious results 

 of their professional inquiries, increasing in a greater 

 or less degree the medical information of the country, 

 and supporting through that century the reputation 

 of the city for medical science, [13] till at the close 

 of it we arrive at the names of Falconer and Parry, 

 who will probably be allowed to have surpassed all 

 their predecessors as well in medical science as in 

 polite and elegant literature ; both entering in early 

 life on the practice of the profession in this city, both 



