LIFE AND WKITINGS OF EGBERT WHYTT, M.D. 127 



the head Whytt, in Watt's " Bibliotheca Eritannica." From that list the follow- 

 ing excerpt is taken : — 



" On the Difference between Respiration and the Motion of the Heart, in 

 Sleeping and Waking Persons," Essays, Phys. and Lit., vol. i., 1754. " On the 

 Cure of a Fractured Tendo Achillis," ib. " On the Use of Bark in a Dysentery^. 

 and a Hoarseness after Measles," ib., vol. iii. " Observations on the Anomalous 

 and True Gout," ib. " Of an Epidemic Distemper at Edinburgh and Southern 

 Parts of Scotland in 1758," Med. Obs. and Inq., vol. ii. " On the Use of Sublimate 

 in the Cure of Phagedenic Ulcers," ib. " Account of an Earthquake felt at Glas- 

 gow and Dumbarton; also of a Shower of Dust falling on a Ship between 

 Shetland and Iceland," Phil. Trans. 1755. " On the Remarkable Effects of 

 Blisters in lessening the Quickness of the Pulse in Cough, attended with In- 

 farction of the Lungs and Fever," ib. 1758. 



It appears that Whytt not only carried on a regular correspondence with Sir 

 John Pringle on medical subjects, but that he corresponded with physicians and 

 lovers of natural history in several parts of the world. Among others, he cor- 

 responded with Dr xIlexander Garden of Charleston, South Carolina, the same 

 whose name is perpetuated in the beautiful and highly fragrant genus Gardenia, 

 garland flowers. Garden writes to Whytt of a new plant which he and Miss 

 CoLDEN of New York had simultaneously discovered. It turned out to be a 

 Hypericum, or at least a plant since named Hypericum mrginianum. It is now 

 however named Elodea virginica^ and in the " Species Plantarum" of Linnseus by 

 WiLDENOw, the synonyme is given Gardenia Coldenia. Of this plant Whytt 

 gave an account in the " Edinburgh Essays, Physical and Literary." He pub- 

 lished also, in the same work, an account of the vermifuge virtues of the Indian 

 or Carolina pink, the Spigelia 7narilandica, which he derived from his correspon- 

 dence with Dr John Lining of Charleston. Dr John Hope afterwards published, 

 in the same work, a larger account of the same plant which he obtained, after 

 Whytt's death, from Dr Lining. Whytt published, in the same work, a de- 

 scription of a marine production, " The froth of the sea," after a specimen sent to 

 him by Dr Garden. He has given a figure of this body, which he regarded as 

 composed of the semi-developed spawn of a species of Buccinum. An account of 

 yellow fever at Charleston, referred to in the above-mentioned catalogue, he 

 derived also from Dr Lining. 



In 1762 Whytt adopted the Pathology of Gaubius as his text-book, instead 

 of the Institutes of Boerhaave, which he had previously used. 



In 1761 he was made first physician to the King in Scotland, an office 

 which is said to have been created for him. In 1763 he was elected President 

 of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, which oflflce he held at the 

 time of his death. 



VOL. XXIII. PART I. 2 m 



