VOL. LXir.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 353 



XXXII. Experiments and Observations on the IVaters of Buxton and Matlock, 

 in Derbyshire. By T. Percival,* of Manchester, M. D., F.R.S. p. 455. 



Reprinted in this author's collected works. 



not only by his lectures and writings, but also by the number and variety of preparations of which his 

 museum consisted. The formation of this collection, which subjected him to vast labour and 

 expence, was a favourite and principal object of his life. It was (as has been well remarked by 

 Mr. Home) a grand attempt to expose to view the gradations of nature, from the most simple state in 

 which life is found to exist, up to the most perfect and most complex of the animal creation, — man 

 himself. The public will hear with pleasure that this valuable collection has recently (1807) been 

 purchased by government and presented to the College of Surgeons for their use. 



The various pursuits relative to anatomy, physiology, and surgery, in which Mr. J. Hunter was 

 engaged, were followed with so much assiduity as to prove injurious to his health. After several 

 previous attacks of the gout, he was seized in 1773 and 1776, and at irregular periods, for some years 

 afterwards, with violent and alarming symptoms, apparently spasmodic, but proceeding (as it after- 

 wards appeared) from an organic affection of the heart : and in one of these attacks he died sud- 

 denly, while he was at St. George's hospital, in Oct. 1793, being then in the 65th year of his age. 



In all his writings Mr. J . Hunter was truly original, deriving his knowledge, not from books (for 

 he rarely consulted them) but from actual experiment and observation. Whatever may be thought 

 of some of his opinions, we cannot sufficiently admire that talent for investigation, by which he was 

 enabled to make the most interesting discoveries relative to the animal economy; discoveries which 

 give him a just claim to be placed in the very first rank of those philosophers, who, in this country, 

 have particularly contributed to the advancement of comparative anatomy and physiology. 



• Tlie following particulars concerning tliis distinguished medical and moral writer, are taken from 

 the Biographical Memoirs prefixed to the edition of his works in 4 vols. 8vo. recently published (1807) 

 by his son. 



Dr. Thos. Percival was born in 1740 at Warrington, where he received his grammatical education. 

 At the age of 21, he went to study physic at Edinburgh. He afterwards removed to Leyden, at 

 which university he took his degree of m. d., in 1765, and visited Paris, before he returned to 

 England. After 2 years spent in his native town, he at length decided on removing to Manchester, 

 where he established himself in 1767 as a practising physician. About this time he published the first 

 volume of his Essays, Medical and Experimental, some of which had been previously inserted in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society, of which he had been elected a memljer 2 years before. From 

 this time he continued to extend his reputation as an author by various publications on subjects con- 

 nected witli philosophy, physic, and morality. For his ingenious communications in these several 

 departments of science, he was elected a member of the Royal Societies of Paris and Edinburo-h, 

 and of the American Philosophical Society, &c. For many years preceding his death. Dr. P. was 

 deprived of his eye-sight, in consequence of which he was ever afterwards obliged to employ an 

 amanuensis. He was also subject to periodical attacks of severe head-ache ; but his habitual serenity 

 of mind was never discomposed in the slightest degree by these bodily afflictions. He died in 1 804, 

 being then in the 64th 3rear of his age. On the monument, erected to his memory, in Warrington 

 church, is engraved an elegant Latin inscription, written by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Parr. 



Of Dr. P.'s writings on physic, the principal are his Essays beforementioned, and his Medical Ethics : 

 those on philosophy consist of Dissertations inserted in the Trans, of the u. s., and in the Memoirs 

 of the p. s. of Manchester; and among those which relate to Morality, not the least valuable 

 are the Essays entitled " A Father's Instructions," &c. These, with several other compositions, 

 constitute the 4 vols, of his works collected and edited by his son. 



It was to Dr. P.'s fondness for literary and scientific intercourse that the p. s. of Manchester, (over 



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