34 Presidentship of Martin Folkes 1749 



those who had not attended for 12 months and had there- 

 fore forfeited their membership l were five in number, viz. 

 Messrs. Pawlet, Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Mr. Maud, Dr. Collyer 

 and the Rev. Edmond Morris. The two last-named were 

 not Fellows of the Royal Society. Six new members were 

 elected, viz. William Fauquier (F.R.S. 1746), William Tem- 

 pest (F.R.S. 1712), William Heberden, M.D. (F.R.S. 1749), 

 Joshua Iremonger (F.R.S. 1747), John Clephane, M.D. 

 (F.R.S. 1746), and William Hall. Of these new members 

 the most notable in his day was the physician William 

 Heberden. He attained high distinction in his profession, 

 and proved to be one of the most genial and influential 

 members of the Club. He is likewise memorable for his 

 generous and sympathetic treatment of his patients, so 

 pleasantly portrayed by the poet Cowper : 



Virtuous and faithful Heberden ! whose skill 

 Attempts no task it cannot well fulfill, 

 Gives melancholy up to Nature's care, 

 And sends the patient into purer air. 2 



The name of William Hall, the last of the group of newly 

 elected members, does not occur in the Royal Society's 

 List of Fellows, and there is no evidence that he ever was 

 elected into the Society. He had repeatedly dined as a 

 visitor at the Club and was probably a favourite among 

 its members 



The visitors who dined with the Club during 1749 included 

 some names of interest. There was a distinguished company 

 at the Mitre on 6th April of this year when the President 

 was supported in the chair by sixteen members and twelve 

 visitors. Earl Stanhope, the second bearer of the title, 

 who was present, was known as a mathematician, and had 

 been elected into the Royal Society in 1735. He manifested 



1 It will be seen in the records of later years that the enforcement of 

 the regulation for the exclusion of absentee members came to be much 

 more laxly observed. But the Club began well. 



2 In his poem of Retirement. " When Samuel Johnson, in his last illness, 

 was asked what physician he had sent for, ' Dr. Heberden,' replied he, 

 ' ultimus Romanorum, the last of the learned physicians.' " Seward, 

 quoted by Birkbeck Hill in his Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. vi. p. 399. 



