woo 



tiie general government of the eftabliftmient. To tfie 

 officers of the hofpital, and thofe governors who took moft 

 intereft in its welfare, liis merits were well known ; and 

 fome of the fruits of his genius and indiiftry are before 

 the public in ^ volume which was publifhed in 1796, inti- 

 tlcd " The Hiftory of the Small-pox in Great Britain, &c." 

 This work, which it was the author's defip;n to occupy 

 two volumes in 8vo., was well conceived, including a brief 

 hiltory of the difeafe, and a review of all the publications on 

 the fubjeft of inoculation, with an experimental inquiry 

 into the relative advantages of the various meafures that had 

 been recommended. Only the firll volume of this work, 

 which is well written, and contains much valuable inform- 

 ation, was publifhed, the happy difcovery of the efficacy of 

 vaccination having, in the author's opinion, fuperfeded the 

 neceffity of the fecond appearing. Dr. Jenner's grand dif- 

 covery made a due impreffion on the mind of Woodville ; 

 and as no other man had equal opportunities of witnefiing and 

 lamenting the ravages of the fmall-pox, fo no perfon could 

 be more iincerely anxious and aftive in the adoption of thofe 

 means that were found adequate to guard mankind againft 

 that peftilence. It is very true, that on the fubjed of 

 vaccination he was, like every body elfe, at firft fceptical ; 

 but he fuffered no opportunity to be loft of afcertaining its 

 efficacy, and then of proclaiming his belief in it. Un- 

 happily, in fome of his early experiments an error was com- 

 mitted ; he was not aware of the influence of the variolous 

 atmofphere of the hofpital. The refult was, that in certain 

 inftances, either pure fmall-pox matter, or a deteriorated 

 vaccine lymph, had been inferted into the arms of fome 

 patients. The effedls were faithfully detailed ; but being 

 fo different from thofe that had been defcribed by Dr. .Tenner, 

 that excellent man and benefaftor to the human race vifited 

 Dr. Woodville, with whom he argued and remonftrated on 

 the fubjeft. It is to be regretted that fome afperities of 

 remark took place between them, although both were 

 equally and honourably engaged in the developenient of 

 truth. The difcuffion, however, as is always the cafe, 

 pi-oved very ufeful in the diffemination of the new praftice ; 

 and if Dr. Jenner had reafon to find fault with the refult of 

 Dr. Woodville's early proceedings, he mult have been 

 abundantly gratified by his fubfequent experiments and 

 publications. The ample field in which Woodville v/as placed 

 enabled him to vaccinate great multitudes, fome thoufands 

 of whom he afterwards telled by variolous inoculation, and 

 thus gave that publicity to vaccination, and that confidence 

 in it, which it could not otherwife have attained in the courfe 

 of many years. He was alfo ardently engaged in the inquiry 

 into the nature and origin of the vaccine lymph ; and, at his re- 

 queft, the writer of this fhort article three times inoculated him 

 with frefh grcafe from the heel of a difcafed horfe. If in 

 the heat and bitternefs of contention men feek an apology 

 for unguarded expreffions and affertions, this cannot be 

 granted to thofe who calumniate the dead ; and therefore 

 the (latement in a late hiftory of vaccination of Dr. Wood- 

 ville having fallen a viftim to the dnnking of ardent 

 fpirits, is deferving of reprobation. Dr. Woodville cul- 

 tivated the fociety of his profeffional brethren, by whom, on 

 account of his talents and companionable qualities, he was 

 held in high eftimation ; and one of thofe who enjoyed the 

 intimacy of his friendftiip, from the period of his lettling in 

 London until the day of his death, contradifts the above 

 -.mfounded calumny. His difeafe, which terminated in 

 •dropfy, had made fuch gradual advances during the laft year 

 ■of his life, that he frequently talked of liis death, which no 

 man ever contemplated with greater equanimity, as likely to 

 take place about a certain affigned period. 



He died at the hofpit?! on the 26th of March 180J ; and 

 5 



WOO 



on the 3dof April, a warm and juft eulogium was pronounced 

 over the body in the faloon by his friend Mr. Highmore. 

 His parents having been Quakers, he by his own deiire was 

 interred in the Friends' burial-ground in Bunhill-fields, after 

 a very appropriate addrefs at the grave by Mrs. Pryor. 



The editor is indebted for the preceding article to his 

 much-efteemed friend J. Norris, etq., no lefs diftinguilhed 

 by his mental and moral qualities than by judgment and 

 extent of reputation in his profeffion. 



Woodville, in Geography, a poft-town of Virginia; 

 94 miles W. of Walhington. 



WOODWARD, John, in Biography, was born in 

 Derby ftiire in 1664, and, being intended for trade, was 

 apprenticed in London ; but in a little while abandoned the 

 Ihop for the fake of fcientific purfuits. In 1687 Dr. Bar- 

 wick took him into his family, and for the fpace of four 

 years gave him inftruftion in medicine and anatomy. He 

 then recommended him to the medical profeflbrftiip ia 

 Grefham college, to which he was elefted in 1692. Having 

 direfted his particular attention to foffils, with a view to 

 which he had travelled through many diftritts of England, 

 he publifhed in 1695 " An EfTay towards a Natural Hiftory 

 of the Earth and terreftrial Bodies, efpecially Minerals ; as 

 alfo of the Sea, Rivers, and Springs ; with an Account of 

 the Univerfal Deluge, and of the EfFefts that it had upon 

 the Earth," 8vo. His preparatory knowledge for a work 

 of this kind was very flight, and therefore the execution of 

 it was attacked by Dr. Martin Lifter, and others. How- 

 ever, in the imperfeft ilate of geology at tliat time, his per- 

 formance engaged notice, and he was chofen in 1693 a 

 fellow of the Royal Society. At this time he was in pof- 

 fefTion of an ancient iron (hield, in the concavity of which 

 was a fculpture reprefenting the ftory of Camillus and the 

 Gauls at Rome ; and as it was a great curiofity among the 

 learned, Dodwell gave an account of it in a Latin treatife, 

 entitled " De Parma equeftri Woodwardiana Differtatio." 

 By this circumflance Woodward was led to increafe his 

 acquaintance with a certain clafs of literati, though he did 

 not efcape the ridicule of the wits. In 1695 he was created 

 M.D. by archbifhop Tenifon, and in 1696 he obtained the 

 fame degree from Cambridge ; and thus honoured, he was 

 prepared for an admiffion into the College of Phyficians as 

 a fellow in 1702. But purfuing his inquiries into natural 

 hiftory and antiquities, he publifhed fome pieces in thefe 

 departments : w'z. " Some Thoughts and Experiments 

 concerning Vegetation," communicated to the R.oyal So- 

 ciety, and printed in the Philofophical Tranfaftions for 

 1669 ; " Naturalis Hiftoria Telluris illuftrata et aufta : ac- 

 cedit Methodica Fofiilium in Claffes Diftributio," 1714, 

 intended as a grand reply to thofe who objefted to his 

 Natural Hiftory of the Earth, which had been tranflated 

 into Latin by Scheuchzer at Zurich ; and " An Account 

 of fome Roman Urns, and other Antiquities, lately digged 

 up near Bifliopfgate ; with brief Reflcftions upon the an- 

 cient and prefent State of London : in a Letter to Sir 

 Chriftopher Wren." In his medical capacity, he publifhed 

 in 1718 " The State of Phyfic and of Difeafes, &c." 8vo., 

 in which he advanced the notion, that the bile and its falts, 

 re-abforbed into the blood, were the true caufe of life and 

 animal motions, and that the fame fermenting in the fto- 

 mach were the caufe of difeafes ; whence he was led to 

 conclude that emetics to evacuate the morbid bile, and oily 

 and unguinous medicines to correft it, were univerfal re- 

 medies. This publication produced a controverfy with Dr. 

 Freind, in which Woodward was anfwered both ludicroully 

 and ferioufly, fo that he gained little credit by his medical 

 theory or praAice. His chagrin, however, was diverted by 

 the ftudy of foffils, arid the augmentation of his cabinet of 



fpecimens. 



