Anniversary Address. 205 



Club, and nought of sadness ever seemed to cloud his benign 

 countenance except when he referred to the loss of some one who 

 had been then present. Under his fostering care, our Club has 

 not only risen to a proud position in regard to the natural 

 history societies which were then in existence, but I believe 

 it has done more than any other for the investigation and illus- 

 tration of our native Flora and Fauna, by being the parent of 

 so many similar clubs, which have been formed in various parts 

 of the kingdom. 



In his medical capacity he had a happy facility in the dis- 

 crimination of diseases, a consequence naturally flowing from the 

 manner in which he had taken advantage of the opportunities 

 that were so extensively opened to him during his abode in Edin- 

 burgh under Dr. Abercrombie. The knowledge thus acquired 

 was never forgotten ; and by his reading, correspondence, and 

 study, he was perfectly acquainted with the advancement of the 

 day in every department of his profession. In his practice he 

 was simple to a degree ; and often has he said to me, that he 

 could never understand how medical men threw remedies to the 

 dogs, which they had hitherto placed such confidence in, merely 

 because some remedy had become popular by being introduced 

 by some fashionable practitioner. His idea of practice was, to 

 watch nature narrowly, to interfere as little as possible; but, 

 when necessary, to act boldly and promptly. As a consulting 

 physician, he was everything that both patient and the attendant 

 could wish for. If he found that his views coincided with his 

 brother practitioner, he at once told the patient so; and, to 

 place full confidence in the usual attendant, he never prescribed 

 another remedy to effect the same purpose, merely for the sake 

 of doing something for his fee, which is one of the greatest blots 

 upon the character of the medical profession, and which, I am 

 sorry to say, I know from experience to be far too common. If 

 he thought a different treatment necessary, he took care neither 

 to alarm the patient nor offend the feelings of the attendant ; 

 and so high a sense of honour had he in his intercourse with his 

 fellow-practitioners, that nothing would induce him to repeat 

 his visit, unless he thought the urgency of the case demanded 

 it. In this manner he established himself as a friend with every 

 one. To him, in the discharge of his duties, no station in life 

 presented any distinction ; and, by his death, the poor have lost 



