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REMINISCENCES OF DR. L. H. POTTS, ONE OF THE FIRST 



SECRETARIES OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF 



CORNWALL. 



By Me. HAMILTON JAMBS, Member of the Council R.I.C. 



The list of Cornish Worthies is a long one, and there are 

 others, who had made Cornwall their temporary home, that have 

 left the imprint of their footsteps on the Cornish sands, and 

 amongst them stands prominent the name of Lawrence Holker 

 Potts, M.D., one of the first secretaries of this Institution, as well 

 one of the most active of the originators of the Society. 



I had hoped that I might have obtained much original 

 - matter from some of those still living, who were his contempor- 

 aries, — not knowing or not realising at the time, that it is now 

 sixty-seven years since the Doctor left Truro, — for in my early 

 youth his name was quite a household word ; and now because 

 of man's forgetfulness, and that his memory may be green 

 amongst us, I have gathered together such facts as I have been 

 able, from such meagre references as are to be found in our early 

 reports, but more largely from an able article in the Mining 

 Almanac for 1851, by Mr. Hyde Clarke, (compiled from various 

 sources, mostly scientific), Mining and Herapath's Journals, 

 Parliamentary Beports, West Briton, and other papers. 



He was born in Pall Mall in 1789, the son of a medical man 

 destined for the same profession, and was happily placed with 

 the celebrated surgeon Brodie. He joined the Hunterian School 

 of medicine, then enjoying the highest reputation, and, with his 

 abilities, having such opportunities, it is not surprising that he 

 attained a considerable reputation for his skill. 



His first connexion with our county began in 1812, on his 

 appointment as full Surgeon to the Eoyal Devon and Cornwall 

 Miners' Militia, but while thus engaged, he did not neglect his 

 studies, and although he attained such eminence in his profession, 

 his heart was often in his workshop or laboratory ; I quote from 

 Mr. Hyde Clarke's article, "he was not one of those men who 



