PITCAIRN. 
effeCt of his prints is cold and filvery. Watelet, who 
generally writes with more tafte and feeling than almoft 
any other of the foreign critics on engraving, praifes him 
fomewhat too highly, when he aflerts, that “Pitau’s en¬ 
graving of the Holy Family, after Raphael, is a chef- 
d’oeuvre, both for the beauty of the execution, the pu¬ 
rity of the drawing, and the ftrength and juftnefs of the 
effeCt. The character of Raphael has, perhaps, never been 
fo faithfully tranflated as in this print, which, by ama¬ 
teurs has been preferred to the famous engraving of the 
Saint, by Edelinck,” which is by the fame celebrated 
mafter. This artift engraved both portraits and hiftori- 
cal fubjeCts. 
PITCAI'RN (Dr. Archibald), an eminent phyfician 
of the mechanical feCt, was born in 165a at Edinburgh, 
in which city his father, defcended from an ancient fa¬ 
mily in Fife, was a considerable merchant. He received 
his fchool-education at Dalkeith, whence he was removed 
to the univerfity of Edinburgh. His profeffional views 
were for fome time unfettled, and he was introduced to 
the elements both of divinity and law. The ftate of his 
health, however, obliged him to interrupt his academi¬ 
cal ftudies, and travel to France. At Paris he met with 
fome friends who were engaged in the ftudy of phytic, and 
was perfuaded by them to join in the fame purfuit. 
After fpending fome time in that capital, he returned to 
Edinburgh ; where, probably through his acquaintance 
with the celebrated David Gregory, he was led to a clofe 
application to mathematics. On this fcience he founded 
his medical fyftem, and, for the practical knowledge of 
his profeffion, he again reforted to Paris, (Edinburgh at 
this time being no medical fchool,) and, having finifhed 
his ftudies, took the degree of M.D. at Rheims in 1680. 
Returning to his native place, he fettled in the practice 
of his profeffion, and made himfelf known by a ffiort 
work, entitled, “Solutio Problematis de Inventoribus,” 
in which he vindicated the claim of Harvey to the difco- 
very of the circulation of the blood, and laid down fome 
canons forjudging of the claims to difcoveries in general. 
The rapid progrefs of his reputation was manifefted by 
an application, in 1692, from the univerfity of Leyden, 
offering him the medical chair in that feminary, which he 
accepted. He continued at Leyden fomewhat more than 
a year, lecturing with great applaufe, chiefly on the 
works of Bellini, and printing fome diflertations on fub¬ 
jeCts connected with the topics of his leClures. Before 
his departure from Edinburgh he had been engaged to a 
daughter of fir Archibald Stevenfon, an eminent phyfi¬ 
cian in that capital, and he revifited it in 1692, with the 
intention of marrying and taking his bride to Leyden, 
Her friends, however, would not confent to this fepara- 
tion, and he was reduced to the alternative of refigning 
his lady or his profeflorffiip. He gallantly preferred the 
latter, and thenceforth refided in Edinburgh, where he 
foon took the lead in practice,'and fpread his fame in to the 
filter kingdom. 
Eminence is always in fome meafure local, and Dr. 
Pitcairn moved in a comparatively narrow circle, but in 
that he attained a high degree of diftinCtion. To this 
day many traditional ftories atteft his popular renown, 
and alfo reprefent him as an eccentric character, free in 
manners and opinions, confident, convivial, a greatenemy 
to the formality and rigour then pervading the prefbyte- 
rianifm of Scotland, and warm in his attachment to the 
exiled Stuarts, and his abhorrence of the revolution. His 
publications were not numerous or confiderable. One of 
them, entitled, “ Dilfertatio de Legibus Hiitorise Natu- 
ralis,” 1696, was levelled againft fir Robert Sibbald’s 
Prodromus HiftoriaeNaturalis Scoriae, on account of that 
author’s attack upon mathematics. In 1701 he pub- 
liffied a collection of Medical Diflertations, dedicated to 
Bellini. He wrote in pure and elegant Latin, but was 
notfparing in farcafms againft his antagonifts. He had a 
talent for Latin poetry, and printed fome of his competi¬ 
tions of this kind, which were ftamped with his political 
Vol. XX. No. 1390. 
537 
opinions. One of them, add relied to a deceafed friend, 
and requefting his return on earth, has this couplet: 
Namque novos vires mutataque regna videbis, 
Paflaque Teutonicas feeptra Britanna manus. 
They are introductory to a virulent attack upon the re¬ 
volution. 
In 1713 he publilhed a new edition of his medical dif- 
fertations, with the addition of fome new ones; and foon 
after their appearance he died, at the age of 61. Some 
years afterwards, the fubftance of his leCtures at Leyden 
was publilhed, under the title of “ Elementa Medicinae 
Phyfico-mathematicae,” both in Holland and England; 
and, as long as that fyftem prevailed, it was reckoned a 
ftandard book. Of his whole medical works an edition 
was given at Leyden in 1737, 4to. His memory furvives 
as an able fupporter of a particular feCt in phyfic, but he 
can fcarcely be reckoned among the real improvers of 
the art. His name occurs alfo in the Biographia Drama- 
tica, as he wrote in his youth a comedy called The Al- 
fembly, which was printed in the year 1722. 
PITCAI'RN (Dr. William), a very eminent Eng- 
lilli phyfician, many years prefident of the college, and 
F.R.S. born about 1711. He was tutor to James, fixth 
duke of Hamilton, whilft at Oxford, and travelled with 
his grace about 1742. In April 1749, at opening of 
the Radcliffe Library, at the requeft of the truftees 
thereof, he was prefented, in the theatre of Oxford, with 
the degree of doCtor of phyfic. In a year or two after¬ 
wards, he was defied phyfician to St. Bartholomew’s 
Hofpital. In this fituation he continued till the death of 
Mr. Treafurer Darker, when the governors defired him to 
accept of the office of treafurer. He died in that fitua¬ 
tion,at the ageof 80, on the 25th of November, 1791. 
Dr. Pitcairn was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a 
Truftee of the Britiffi Mufeum. He was one of the moll 
amiable and benevolent of men ; employed the leifure of 
the extenfive medical practice, to which his long life was 
devoted, to the cultivation of a botanic garden at Ifling- 
ton : there he entertained his friends, and communicated 
his fcientific riches with the fame liberality with which 
he bellowed the mod valuable charity of his medical ad¬ 
vice on thofe who flood in need of it. In conjunction 
with the no-lefs diftinguiffied Fothergill, Dr. Pitcairn fent 
a perfon to collect, on the Alps of Swiflerland, many cu¬ 
rious plants, previoufty unknown to Engliffi cultivators, 
the greater number of which acquifitions may be feen in 
the Hortus Kewenfis of the late Mr. Aiton and his fon. 
PITCAIRN GREE'N, a village of Scotland, in Perth- 
fhire, lately founded for the purpofe of manufactures. 
A poetical lady has predicted that it is on a future day 
to rival Manchefter in its population and trade: fix 
miles north-weft of Perth. 
PITCAIRN’S I'SLAND, an ifland in the South Paci¬ 
fic Ocean, fo called by captain Carteret, in 1767, after a 
young gentleman, Ion to major Pitcairn of the marines, 
who was loft in the Aurora, and who had difeovered it. 
Upon approaching it, it appeared like a great rock ri- 
fing out of the fea, but not more than five miles in cir¬ 
cumference, and feeming to be uninhabited. It was ne- 
verthelefs covered with trees, and a ftream of freffi 
water was obferved to run down one fide of it. A num¬ 
ber of fea-birds hovered round it, and the adjoining fea 
feemed to have fifli. It is feen at the diftance of more 
than fifteen leagues, and lies about a thoufand leagues 
weft of the continent of America, in lat. 25. 2. S. ion. 
133. 21. W. 
It is well known, that, in the year 1789, his majefty’s 
armed veflel, the Bounty, Lieut. Bligh, while employed 
in conveying the bread-fruit tree from Otaheite to the 
Weft Indies, was run away with by her men, and the cap¬ 
tain and fome of his officers put on-board a boat, which, 
after a pafl’age of 1200 leagues, providentially arrived at a 
Dutch Settlement on the ifland of Timor. The muti¬ 
neers, twenty-five in number, were fuppofed to have 
6 X made 
