180 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



This view of the laws regulating the communication of contagious disorders proposed 

 by Dr. Hosack, greatly limits the ground of controversy ; and I am gratified in adding 

 that it has met with a most favourable reception with the physicians of Europe, and has 

 reflected great honour on the state of medical learning in this country. (See the London 

 Ann. Med. Review, for 1809; the Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal.) For more able 

 details on the subjects of contagion and infection, and for the histories of various epi- 

 demics which have prevailed in the United States, the reader will consult that valuable 

 periodical journal, the Medical Repository, edited by Drs. Mitchill, Smith, and Miller ; 

 the Philadelphia Medical Museum, by Dr. Coxe; the American Medical and Philoso- 

 phical Register, conducted by Drs. Hosack and Francis ; and the Massachusetts Medi- 

 cal Communications. 



The following note refers to the account of Bacon and Coke, in the 41st page, and was 

 accidentally omitted. 



Having frequently referred to Francis Bacon, (Lord Verulam, and Viscount St. Al- 

 bans,) it may not be amiss to mention his melancholy fall. Pope says, 



" If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, 

 The brightest, wisest, meanest of mankind." 



In March, 1620, a committee of the house of commons, appointed to inquire into abuses 

 in the courts of justice, reported specific charges of corruption against him in the execu- 

 tion of his office of Lord Chancellor of England. His antagonist, Sir Edward Coke, who 

 was then a member, was one of the committee appointed to draw up the charges against 

 him ; and he was finally impeached before the house of lords. He at first avoided an 

 investigation on the plea of sickness ; but finally, on the 30th of April, he made a humble 

 and contrite confession, and admitted that, pendente lite, he had received large sums of 

 money, and other douceurs, from suitors in bis court, and he was fined forty thousand 

 pounds, imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure, rendered incapable of holding 

 any office, place, or employment, and of sitting in parliament, or coming within the verge 

 of the court. The king afterwards set him at liberty, and gave him a pension. He lived 

 obscurely in his chambers at Gray's Inn, where his lonely and desolate condition so 

 wrought upon his melancholy temper, that he pined away, and, after all his affluence, be 



