612 
of notice, good health withal, and an inex- 
tinguifhable ambition of. excellence ftill 
higher than what he has attained, and this. 
even independently of regard to the’ extrin- 
fic advantages which may be connected with 
it. Only this rare aflemblage of qualities, 
exifting m complete and harmonious union, 
can abfolutely enfure fuccefs. It becomes 
doubtinl, if but one of them be wanting. 
In general, the prefence of the more effen- 
tial ones miffes not of due refpect and re- 
wards. Sometimes, a fplendid, but tran- 
fient, fuccefs fhall crown the more fuperfi- 
cial and trivial ones. Fer young men, it is 
but too common to court notice only by an 
unreal femblance, efpecially inthe medical 
profefsion, of thofe qualities and. accom- 
plifhments which they ought actually to pof- 
fefs. But, Dr. Fordyce evinced, from his 
very firit appearance in London, the manli- 
nefs ef his character, by purfuing a different 
courfe, by afpiring to genuine profefsional 
excellence, and by taking a method the moft 
unequivocal, inoffenfive, and unfufpicious, 
to meke his fkill and _ talents extenfively and 
ufefully known. This he did, by under- 
taking, foon after his profefsional fettlement 
in London, the duties of a lecturer cn 
medical fcience. London containing fuch a 
number of phyficians, furgeons, and apothe- 
caries, fo many public hofpitals, fo many 
young perfons in a train of education for 
the profefsional practice of. medicine, had 
hitherto remained without other advantages 
as a medical {chool, than which were to be 
found in the anatomical ‘demonftrations of 
fuch men as Lawrence, Nicholls, and Hun- 
ter—in the obfervation of the hofpital-prac- 
tice—in the convenience of private diffec- 
tions—in apprenticefhips with apothecaries 
and furgeons—and in the tranfient converfe 
of men who had rifen to commanding emi- 
nence in the different branches of the pro- 
fefsion. It was im imitation of the mode of 
inftruction followed at Leyden and Edin- 
burgh, that Dr. Fordyce undertook to read 
medical lectures in this metropolis. Such an 
attempt, fo novel, and in the hands of a 
young man, ashe then was, without name, 
could not pofsibly have turned out well, if 
the greateft diligence and ability had not 
. been difplayed in its execution. But, it was 
his fortune to fucceed in the enterprize; 
and thus to become, as he afterwards de- 
lishted to reflect, m fome fort the founder of 
a London School of Me¢icine. Chemiftry, 
materia medica, and the practice of phyfic, 
were the fubjects of his lectures; which 
thus comprehended every part of know- 
ledge except anatomy, furgery, and botany, 
that falls exprefsly within the circle of me- 
dical fcience. His lectures were repeated 
thrice in the year, in courfes beginning 
fuccefsively the firft Monday of Febru- 
ary, on ‘the firit Monday of June, on 
the firft Monday of November. The number 
ei his pupils might not atirft be great; but 
Account of Dr. Fordyces 
[July 1, 
his reputation, as a lecturer, became every 
year higher ; and long before the period of his 
death, he could boaft of having read lec- 
tures to fome thoufands of medicai practi- 
tioners, among whom were not a few of the 
moit diftinguifhed junior members of the fa- 
culty in London. In a work, entitled 
* ELEMENTS OF THE Practice or Puy- 
stc,” he publifhed a convenient abftract of 
his lectures on that clafs of fubjects. It has 
pafsed through many editions, and is, unde= 
niably, remarkable for elegance and fimpli- 
city of arrangement, unaffected propriety of 
language, enlarged and accurate fcience, fa- 
gacity of difcernment,ingenuity of theory and 
opinions, and witha] the moft difcreet and fober 
cautionin finally practical judgment. Hisferies 
of doctrines are, in this book, diftributed as 
they were in his lectures, into the Natural 
Hiftory of the Human Eody, and the Doc- 
trine of Difeafes. | In the former is exhibited 
a beautiful fyftem of phyfiology, explaining: 
the chemical compofition of the! different 
parts of the body, their mechanical and or- 
ganic ftructure, the functions for which they 
are feverally deftimed, with the proportions, 
relations and influences on which their found 
and healthful activity depends. Fevers and 
local Inflammations are the two great clafses 
into which he diftributes all the varieties of 
difeafe. He defcribes their fymptoms and 
progrefs with the moft careful philofophical 
accuracy. He regards the incefsant ten- 
dency of the energies of animal life to their 
own renovation and prefervation, as the prin- 
cipal means from which the cure of fever is 
tobe hoped. Medical practice he would di- 
rect to watch the progrefs of the natural 
cure, to regulate the unavoidable external 
influences of diet, air, and converfe, to re- 
lieve local opprefsions, and to fupply defi- 
ciencies of local energy; in fhort, to look on 
fimply,as it were, while nature nraintains the 
itruggle with difeafe, but to take care that 
nature has fair play in the ftrife. He thus 
taught evidently the beft medical: wifdom of 
the fchools of Sydenham, of Boerhaave, of 
Hoffman. He fhunned to eftablith any prac- 
tice on the bolder empirical doctrines of 
fome of the moderns. He inclined to exhi- 
bit tonic and ftimulating remedies in almost 
all thofe cafesin which they can be, upon 
any principles, adminiftered. with difcretion. 
But he appears to have difapproyed the 
idea of rudely forcing nature with ftimuli in 
every inftance of feverith difeafe. The ge- 
neral ratio of his doctrine appears to have - 
been the fame in regard to the different dif- 
eafes of local inflammation, as in refpect to 
fever. His fuccefs became gradually pro- 
portionate to his induftry and other profef- 
fional merits. He was elected, about thirty 
years fince, to be one of the phyficians to St. 
Thomas’s Hofpital. The range of his private 
practice was~ continually enlarged., He ob- 
tamed, in due time, the honour of being af- 
fociated asa Fellow of. the Royal College of 
: Phyficians 
