142 
THE NATURALIST’S LITERARY PORTRAIT GALLERY * 
(Continued from p. 33.) 
No. II.— Edward Bevan, M.D. 
Dr. Bevan, the gifted subject of the following memoir, was born in London on 
the 8th of July, 1770. He had the misfortune, in early infancy, by the death of 
his father, to be deprived of his natural guardians, and the shelter of the parental 
roof. He was therefore removed to the house of his maternal grandfather, Mr. 
Powle, of Hereford; and under the judicious care of Mrs. Powle and her youngest 
daughter—whose talents and attainments were of no ordinary standard—was laid 
the basis of that moral and intellectual strength which marks his life. 
At the age of seven he paid a visit to his uncle, Mr. John Powle, a medical 
practitioner atWootton-under-Edge, with a view, as he afterwards learnt, of determ¬ 
ining his future career. This gentleman elicited such evidence of his little nephew’s 
dawning power and mildness of disposition, as, in three days, led to his permanent 
adoption. Here, again, he had the advantage of refined female influence : the 
moral precepts and literary graces, sown by Mrs. Powle, expanded luxuriantly 
in the ready soil, and have supplied a rich garner, of which all within the reach 
of his beneficence have liberally participated. 
These female influences are especially dwelt upon, as confirming a general 
opinion, and more particularly that of Dr. Bevan himself, that the bias of 
character is usually stamped by the mother, upon whose early cares mainly 
depend the principles and habits, which subserve every future stage of life. 
At eight he was placed at the grammar school at Wootton, where he remained 
four years. At the close of his third year, his diligence and abilities had placed 
him at the head of the school : a position in which his diminutive stature, as 
compared with the majority of his school-mates, made him singularly conspicuous. 
At this era he had a second time the misfortune to become an orphan, by the 
death of his kind adopters, who, having no children, bequeathed to him the bulk 
of their property. He now returned once more to his grandfather, who entered 
him at the College-school in Hereford, where he remained until of a suitable age 
to commence that course of professional study which he was destined to pursue. 
In testimony of the efficacy of those principles with which his mind had been 
imbued by his instructors, his inflexible regard for veracity may be adduced, 
an early test of which is worth recording. During the first few months of his 
medical pupilage, he was desired, by his preceptor, to say to an inquiring patient, 
* This series—including zoologists, botanists, geologists, and meteorologists—will be continued 
every alternate month, each memoir being accompanied by a portrait and autograph. —Ed. 
