1802] 
Phyficians; he was alfo admitted a Fellow of 
the Royal Society, to which he had the me- 
rit of communicating various papers of great 
ingenuity, which have been printed in the 
volumes of its Tranfactions. He began, in 
time, to be looked up to by moft of his bre- 
thren in the fame profefsion, as one whofe 
afsiftance any of them might well prefer, in 
‘confultation upon cafes of extraordinary diffi- 
culty, and whofe opinion was to be always 
heard with deference. His reputation, both 
“as a phyfician and a chemift, contributed to 
recommend him to:a contract with Govern- 
ment for the’ fupply of the acid-preparation 
of cabbage, knownby the name of Sour-krout, 
for the ufe of the Royal Navy. The falutary 
effects of this preparation, as a preventive of 
fcurvy, have been fufficiently afcertained by 
the ufe of feamen m long voyages; and we 
have reafon to believe that Dr. Fordyce ful- 
filled his contract in a manner equally bene- 
‘ficial to the naval fervice of his country, and 
advantageous to his own private fortune. 
Among the other honourable tafks to which 
his refpectability as a teacher and practi- 
tioner in medicine naturally recommended 
him, was that of the appointment, one year, 
‘to read the Gulftonian Lecture, at the The- 
atre of the Royal College of Physicians. He 
chofe for this lecture a fubject which he had, 
more than thirty years before, illuftrated in 
his thefis when a candidaté for the degree of 
doctor of medicine in the Univerfity of Edin- 
burgh. This fubject was the Digeftion of 
Food, ftill one of the moft obfcure, aud cer- 
tainly one of the moft interefting, in the 
whole hiftory of the animal economy. ifn 
“his lecture, he ingenioufly explained the 
ftructure of the organs of digeftion; confi- 
dered the nature of the various fubftances 
converted by thefe into nourifhment; then 
‘ evinced, with what feems to be the full force 
of demonftration, that, in digeftion, all the 
fubftances taken into the ftomach as food, 
and capable of becoming fuch, are refolved 
-4dnto their primary, or, at leaft, fecondary, 
chemical principles, without undergoing pre- 
’ cifely the fame procefses of fermentation or pu- 
trefaction, by which alone animal and vege- 
table fub{tances can be reduced to their ele- 
ments, under our manipulations. To have 
tendered this phyfiology of digeftion com- 
plete, and unexceptionably correct, the Doc- 
tor only wanted to have been fomewhat more 
- converfant in the later improvements of pneu- 
matic chemiftry. This difcourfe was alter- 
_ wards publifhed; and, inreading, as in hear- 
in ay “GA: 
“ mittent fever; and on the regular continued » 
fever. Thefe difertations exhibited in full de- 
ai, 
ing it, the friends of medical fcience were at 
a lofs which to admire the moft, the ingeni- 
ous originality, or the folidity, of the views 
which it difplayed. His moft elaborate me- 
dical production was givén to the world 
within thefe laft twelve years, in three dif- 
ferent difsertations—on fimple fever of one 
paroxyim only ; on the regular tertian inter- 
Monyu ty Mac. No. 88. 
3 
Account of Dr. Fordyce. 
613. 
tail, the fubf{tance of the doctrines which he 
had taught in his lectures on this fubject, 
and of which he had been able to give only 
a brief abftract in his Elements of the Prac- 
tice of Phyfic. As a chemift, he was defir- 
ous to render his knowledge, in the utmoft 
degree, fubfervient to the improvement 
of tlhe ufeful arts. He publifhed, with 
this view, a {mall werk, under’ the ti- 
tle of “ Elements of Vevetation,” which, 
within a few years, defervediy pefsed through 
many editions:* In that work, he has firft 
explamed thofe chemical terms -and defini. _ 
tions, which are necefsary to be known in the 
application of chemiftry to agriculture: he | 
has next enumerated all the different chemi- 
cal fub{tances found in foils, or necefsary to 
vegetation, and has elucidated their proper- 
tiés: he has farther explained the‘ botanical 
ftructure of plants: and he has, in the con- 
clufion of his Efsay, given rules for afcer 
taining, by eafy experiment, the ingredients, 
and by confequence the relative fertility of 
any foil. A very ufeful and eafily intelli- 
gible Appendix is fubjoined, for the benefit of 
the practical farmer. This treatife, with thofe 
of Mr. Kirwan, ‘and of the Earl of Dando- 
nald, are the moft valuable abftracts’ whith 
have been hitherto pubdlithed of the chemif- 
try of agriculture. From the time when Dr. 
Fordyce’s ability and medicel prudence be- 
caine. fully known, till his health began to 
decline, his practice, as a phytician, was very 
extenfive. He wasofall men the moft punc- 
tual to his appointments for confultatien 5 
modeft in delivering his opinions; and, cn 
account of the uncertainty of fcience, always 
difpofed to prefer caution to rath empiricifin. 
He was happy in his domeftic connection, 5 
and yet did not pafs through fe without the 
expericace ot fome fevere family misfortunes. 
llis only fon perifhed in-early youth, by a la- 
mentable accident: his wife, an amiable 
woman, never recovered irom the illnefs and 
diitrets brought upon her by the premature 
death of her child. He had alfo two daugh- 
ters, ladies of eminent genius and accomplith- 
ments: of thefe, the eldeft is the wiie of 
General Bentham : the youngeft remains un- 
married. . His convertation was manly and 
rich in various mteiligence, yet unafsuming. 
His manners had in them the fubftance, with- 
out the excefsive fuperficial poli%, of good 
breeding. His form was manly. His counte- 
nance was one in which a keen-eyed phyfioy- 
noinift might read the indications of genius, 
though, to the pert vulgar, it might have 
feemed, in his-lattér years, to be rather grofs 
and unenimated. He is faid to have fome- 
times taken more wine than he woald have 
chofen to prefcribe to a-patient, though he 
never drank to intoxication. He died in the 
65th year of hisage. His complaint was, as 
we are informed, a dropfy in the breaft. The | 
whole. medical faculty confefs, that they hate 
loft by his death one of their brighteit orna- 
iments. 
era PRO 
