iv 



men of Great Britain. Dr. Fowler was an active member, and brouglit 

 forward questions on politics and social economy for discussion. He early 

 adopted the Liberal side in politics, and that of complete toleration in reli- 

 gion, and throughout his long career he was a steady supporter of Liberal 

 principles. In 1793 he published a work entitled * Experiments and Ob- 

 servations relative to the influence lately discovered by M. Galvani, and 

 commonly called Animal Electricity.' The work consists of 176 pages, 

 and contains an account of numerous experiments with different metals on 

 frogs, the earthworm, the hearts of cats and rabbits, &c. The work also 

 contains a letter from Professor Robison giving an account of some ex- 

 periments with dissimilar metals. Dr. Fowler took his medical degree at 

 the University of Edinburgh, Sept. 12, 1793; he was admitted Licen- 

 tiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London in March 1796, about 

 which time he settled at Salisbury, and was elected Physician to the In- 

 firmary of that city, an office which he filled during forty years ; after 

 which he continued to be one of its consulting physicians to the time of 

 his death. In 1802 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 

 1805 he married the daughter of William Bowles, Esq., of Heale House. 

 He had an extensive medical practice during many years, and a still more 

 extensive acquaintance with the leading men of the day, for which he was 

 partly indebted to his early friendship with, the Marquis of Lansdowne and 

 Lord Holland, and also to his own social qualities and conversational 

 powers, the latter being enlivened by anecdote, apt quotation, and varied 

 knowledge, which enabled him to say something agreeably and well on 

 almost every subject ; at the same time his kindly nature mellowed and 

 improved everything he said and did. In 1831 he became a Member of 

 the British Association, an(f during a number of years made frequent com- 

 munications to it on subjects in mental philosophy and their relation to 

 physiology. The last communication was in 1859, when Dr. Fowler, then 

 in his 94th year, made the journey to Aberdeen for the purpose of being 

 present at the Congress. He took great interest in the mental condition 

 of the deaf, dumb, and blind, and was fond of inquiring how it was that 

 persons so afflicted displayed a higher intelligence than that of the most 

 sagacious of the lower animals, and how by touch alone the meaning of 

 others can be communicated to the blind and deaf, and instantly inter- 

 preted. During the later years of his life. Dr. Fowler was himself afflicted 

 with loss of sight. Indeed, in his work published in 1793, he complains 

 (page 76) that the weak state of his eyes did not permit him to look in- 

 tently at minute objects. Nevertheless his mental activity was so great, 

 that when he could no longer see to read he kept employed two men and 

 two boys in reading to him, and writing down from his dictation memo- 

 randa for future papers. One of his latast acts, in conjunction with Mrs. 

 Fowler, was to purchase and endow a suitable home for the Salisbury and 

 South Wiltshire Museum, in which he took a great interest, and bestowed 

 on it a large portion of his books and collections. Dr. Fowler was also a 



