(a.d. 1714-1787.) 

 W. BOSWELL STONE, Esq. 



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^^Y /^l II MONG the worthies of Dorset we ma}' claim some 

 'W/^S ^^ right to number William Cuming, M.D., 



who, having settled here while still a young 

 man, could never be tempted away from us 

 by the brilliant prospects of a London 

 practice, but spent the remaining portion of 

 his seventy-four years in our county town. 



Dr. Cuming's autobiography is contained 

 in a letter (dated Dorchester, August, 1783), 

 written by him to his friend, the celebrated physician, John 

 Coakley Lcttsom. From this source we learn that Cuming was 

 born on September 19th (O.S.), 1714. His father (he tells us) 

 was " INIr. James Cuming, an eminent merchant in Edinburgh." 

 William Cuming was educated in Edinburgh. Before he 

 was eighteen he began " the study of physic . . . daily 

 attending the lectures " on that science given in the University 

 of Edinburgh. In 1735 he went to France, where he devoted 

 nine months to visiting hospitals and dissecting. Leaving 

 France he and his friends, Whytt and Kennedy, made a three 

 weeks' tour through Flanders to Leyden. At Rheims, where 

 they took medical degrees, a courteous professor, on being 



