1870.] ^•^'^ 



OBITUAKY jSTOTICE OF THE LATE JxVMES COPLAND, M. D. 



Bead hy Dr. William Pep2)er^ hefore the American Philosophical Society, 

 PhiladeliMa, JSTov. 21, 1870. 



It would be amiss to occupy any large share of the time of the Society 

 by a lengthy eulogy upon the wise man, whose death has furnished the 

 occasion of my remarks ] yet in some respects the hfe of James 

 Copland presented more of variety and vicissitude than falls to the lot of 

 most students or practitioners of medicine. He was born in the Orkney 

 Islands in November, 1791, and was the eldest of nine children. His 

 early education was conducted at Lerwick, one of the Shetland Islands, 

 but at the early age of sixteen, having decided to adopt the profession of 

 medicine, he repaired to the justly renowned University of Edin- 

 bui'gh, where he continued four years. In 1815, at the age of twenty-four, 

 having obtained his diploma, he turned his footsteps towards London, 

 following the example of a long list of distinguished predecessors. It is 

 certainly strong testimony to the high standard of requirements, the 

 great educational facilities, and the distinguished abilities of the Faculty 

 at the L'niversity of Edinburgh, during the latter half of the last century, 

 that so many of her graduates attained the highest eminence. It was to 

 this school that we owed our own Kuhn, Rush, !)Iorgan, Shippen, Wistar, 

 and Physick, and many of the most successful and distinguished Physi- 

 cians in London had migrated there from Edinburgh. Of all these 

 eminent men not one sought the metropolis with a better equipment of 

 vigorous health, strong and well trained mental powers, and indefatigable 

 energy than Copland. 



Still he did not succeed in establishing himself there immediately, but 

 within a few months after his arrival in London, crossed the channel to 

 Paris, and spent two years in study at the French and German schools. 

 Upon his retuin to London in 1817, he became one of the Health officers 

 of the African Company, and spent twelve months on the Gold Coast. 

 While there both his own exiceptionally robust constitution and wide ex- 

 perience in the treatment of fever and dysentery, underwent a severe trial, 

 for not only was he obliged to treat and nurse almost the entire ship's crew 

 in an attack of yellow fever, but, after accomplishing this arduous duty, 

 he was himself seized and was dangerously ill. He subsequently returned 

 to England, but after paying a brief visit to his Orcadian home, 

 he again crossed to France and spent some months in attendance on the 

 Parisian Hospitals. 



It was not until 1820 that Copland, at the age of twenty-nine years, 

 finallj' settled in London, and commenced an unbroken course of fifty 

 years' laborious study and practice. From this time his success was steady 

 and uniform. In 1820 he was appointed Physician to the Royal Infirmary 

 for Diseases of Children, a post which he subsequently changed for Senior 

 and finally for that of Consulting Physician. In 1823 he was elected Con- 

 sulting Physician to Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital. He was also 

 sometime Physician to the South London Disx^ensary. His practice in,- 



