518 



C U R R I E. 



Currie. flourishing town, and in the formation of which Dr 

 "■"""Y" - *' Currie took so active a part.* 



About the time of Dr Currie's settlement in Liver- 

 pool, his ingenious friend, countryman, and early com- 

 panion Dr Bell, commenced practice with the most flat- 

 tering prospects in the town of Manchester, and a con- 

 stant intercourse of affection was kept up between 

 them. In January 1784, Dr Bell was seized with an 

 illness which terminated in his death ; and the anxiety 

 of friendship induced Dr Currie to pay him the most 

 assiduous and unremitting attention. This, however, 

 could not be reconciled with the duties of a rising 

 practice without much personal inconvenience, and he 

 was frequently forced to travel to and from Manchester 

 under night, at a time when he was by other exertions 

 much harassed and fatigued. The weather being du- 

 ring that season extremely severe, his efforts proved too 

 violent for his constitution ; and immediately after his 

 return from Dr Bell's funeral, he was attacked with an 

 inflammatory fever, which threatened his life, and had 

 nearly deprived the world of those discoveries and wri- 

 tings by which he has since immortalized his name. 

 The disorder afterwards settling on his lungs, gave rise 

 to a severe cough, which seemed to indicate the ap- 

 proach of consumption. Dr Darwin inserted in the 2d 

 volume of his Zoonomia, an account of this illness, and 

 of the plan of treatment which Dr Currie successfully 

 pursued. Soon after his recovery, which did not take 

 place till autumn, he wrote a memoir of the life of his 

 amiable and accomplished friend and benefactor, in 

 which he paid an elegant tribute to the memory of de- 

 parted worth. This work, which was his first acknow- 

 ledged appearance from the press, was undertaken at 

 the request of the Manchester Philosophical and Liter- 

 ary Society, and being published in the first volume of 

 their Transactions, gained him considerable credit as an 

 author. 



An illness at that critical period of a young physician's 

 life, when he first begins to be known, is frequently 

 very detrimental to his views ; but notwithstanding this 

 unfavourable circumstance, Dr Currie's practice rapid- 

 ly advanced ; and the respectability and public esteem 

 into which he quickly rose, fully realized the hopes, and 

 justified the discernment of his friends. The endow- 

 ments of his mind, indeed, and the qualities of his 

 heart, united to the accomplishments which books and 

 an extensive knowledge of" mankind had enabled him 

 to acquire, were such as could not fail to inspire confi- 

 dence in his professional skill, and a warm and affec- 

 tionate attachment to his person. His figure, which 

 was tall and commanding, gave a dignified effect to his 

 first appearance among strangers, which the good sense 

 and intelligence of his countenance contributed to 

 heighten, and which a more intimate acquaintance with 

 his character and manners served strongly to confirm. 

 In that easy kind of philosophical conversation, which 

 is so much the delight of men of letters, he was pecu- 

 liarly formed to shine; and no person ever left his com- 

 pany without feeling his mind enlightened and his 

 taste gratified. But there was something more than 

 the elegance and variety of his language, and the dis- 

 criminating sagacity of his remarks, which gave a charm 



to Dr Currie's society, and raised him to a distinguished 

 station among his contemporaries. - In his professional 

 capacity, he displayed a degree of skill and knowledge 

 which coidd only be acquired by assiduous habits of 

 study, and a talent for minute and accurate observa- 

 tion, joined to that manly self-confidence and prompt- 

 ness of decision, which distinguished the man of ac- 

 tion from the man of mere speculation. Thus gifted, 

 it is not surprising that he commanded an extensive 

 practice in spite of the disadvantages of his situation, 

 and found his company courted by men of all ranks 

 who had any claim to literary acquirements. He was 

 elected a member of the London Medical Society in 

 1790, and communicated to it an essay on " Tetanus 

 and Convulsive Disorders," published in the third vo- 

 lume of its Memoirs. In 1792 he became a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society : this, however, having been confer- 

 red upon him as an acknowledgment for having pre- 

 sented to that learned body a very curious and instruc- 

 tive paper, containing " An Account of the remark- 

 able effects of a Shipwreck on the Mariners, with Ex- 

 periments and Observations on the influence of Immer- 

 sion in fresh and salt water, hot and cold, on the powers 

 of the living body." This communication was publish- 

 ed in the Philosophical Transactions of the year in which 

 it was received, and may be considered as the first fruit 

 of an ingenious and useful investigation, to which the 

 Doctor had turned all the powers of his vigorous and 

 persevering mind, and which ended in one of the most 

 important discoveries that the history of medicine has 

 to record. 



To every thing that concerns the welfare of his spe- 

 cies, Dr Currie's mind was peculiarly alive, and the in- 

 terest he took in the political events of his day, amount- 

 ed frequently to an agitating solicitude. We have al- 

 ready recorded a proof of his patriotic ardour, which 

 displayed itself in the efforts of his juvenile pen at the 

 commencement of the American revolution. Another 

 instance of the same spirit occurred during his residence 

 in London, in the summer of 1780, when the metro- 

 polis was the scene of those disgraceful riots which 

 have consigned the name of Wilkes to infamous renown. 

 Indignant at the conduct of the magistrates, and of 

 the opposition in Parliament, he employed his talents 

 in defence of administration, by writing a series of 

 letters in the Public Advertiser, under the signature 

 of Caius. These letters, which are three in number, 

 and were afterwards republished by some unknown 

 hand, in a collection of political papers, evince a mas- 

 culine mind, and a heart deeply interested in the cause 

 of his country and of human nature. In these publi- 

 cations, it will be remarked, he adopted the views of 

 the Tory party, to which, in the early period of his 

 life, he had an attachment. His political principles, 

 however, gradually and insensibly took another bias ; 

 and the same patriotic feelings which led him in times 

 of turbulence and anarchy to lend the weight of his 

 talents in support of the crown, made his mind, under 

 other circumstances, tremble for the rights of the com- 

 munity. This will account for an apparent change in 

 his sentiments towards the latter period of his life, and 

 we hesitate not to say, that the work which exhibits 



Currie. 



* It may not be improper to take notice in this place, of the benevolent exertions of Dr Currie in promoting another institution 

 more immediately connected with his profession, though, in doing so, we transgress the order of time. In the year 1785, a proposal 

 was made to connect with the public infirmary (of which Dr Currie was one of the physicians) an asylum for the reception of lunatics. 

 This project the doctor zealously espoused, and warmly recommended in two letters, which he published in Gore's Liverpool Adver- 

 tiser in 1789, and which are stamped with the characteristic elegance and ability of his pen. The result of his labours, combined with 

 the exertions of other benevolent individuals, was the election of a well-planned edifice, for the reception of those who suffer under the 

 pressure of the worst of human ills, " the mind diseased." 



