1807.] 
f 
the introduction of the Scotch paving-stone 
into London, he entered extensively into that 
business, and some time afterwards was so 
fortunate as to be appointed mason to the city 
of Lonaon. His wealth and consequence now 
Yapidiy increased. He was elected into the 
common-council for the ward of Cripplegate 
in 1783, and in 1791 was appointed one of 
the deputies of that.extensive ward. He was 
elected an alderman in 1793, and in 1796 he, 
received the honour of knighthood. In 1797 
he served the office_of sheriff, and in 18cr 
was promoted to the civic chair. Sir William 
did not, when his wealth increased, venture 
upon a country-house,&c, but continued, like 
an old fashioned tradesman, to smoke hispipe 
every evening among his neighbours, at the 
Jacob’s Well, in Barbican, near which he had 
resided many years. Benevolence appears to 
have been the ruling principle of Sir William’s 
mind. About 1786, he erected nine alms- 
houses in Jacob’s Well Passage, the tenants 
of which are either his own aged workmen, 
or reduced trasesmen, and the houses cannot 
be distinguished from other dwelling-houses, 
for no ostentatious inscription in the front 
proclaims the generosity of the founder, or 
the poverty of the inhabitants. The alms- 
houses, though he belonged to the carpen- 
ters’ company, he put into the gift of the 
parish of Cripplegate. He also built alms- 
houses of a similar description at his quarries 
in Yorkshire, for the residence of such of his 
workmen as through age-or infirmity had be- 
come incapable of labour. After the victory 
obtained by Lord Nelson at Copenhagen, 
which occurred during Sir William’s mayor- 
alty, he signified to the citizens, with cha- 
racteristic humanity, his pasticular desire that 
such who intended to expend money in illu- 
minations, would rather add it to the sub- 
scription then orened for the benefit of the 
widows and children of those who had fallen 
in that bloody engagement. This. suggestion, 
though it excited symptoms of displeasure 
among some people, yet was highly approved 
of by the more sober and rational part of his 
fellow-citizens; and it is scarcely mecessary 
* to add, that on this, as on ait other occasions, 
he did not fail to give weight to his precepts 
by his example. Soon after the expiration of 
his mayoralty, Sir William quitted his house 
in Barbican, and resided principally at a coun- 
try-house at Clapnam, where he passed his 
€oncluding years in the enjoyrent of that 
tranquillity and self-satisfaction arising from 
the consciousness of a well-spent life. | 
[Further particulars of Dr. Hulme, whofe 
deat® was announced at—page 496 of Vol. 23. 
He was born at Holmthorp in Yorkshire, 
on the 17th of June, 3732, and wes the 
youngest of eleven children. He was taught 
the rudiments of medical science by his bro- 
ther, Lr. Joseph Hulme, an eminent phy- 
Sian at Tlalifax, and afterwards became a 
pupil at Guy’s Hospital in London, and in 
Account of the late Dr. Hulme. $91 
1755 entered into the British Navy in a 
medical capacity In 1765, he received the 
degree of doctor of physic at Edinburgh, and 
afterwards settled asa physician in London. 
He published, in 1768, ‘* Libellus de Natura 
cansa curationeque Scorbuti;” to which is 
annexed, a proposal for preventing the scurvy 
in the British navy; his employment in the 
navy having afforded him opportunities of 
observing that disease in all its. stages. in 
1763, he was elected physician in orsinary 
to the Lying-ia Hospital, which office he re- 
signed in 1794. His next publication wasy 
‘© A Treatise on the Puerperal Fever,” 
wherein the nature and cause of that disease, 
so fatal to lying-in women, are represented 
in a new point of view; illustrated by dise 
sections, and arational method of cure, proe 
posed and confirmed by experience. Dr. Hulme 
was the first person who considered the puer- 
peral fever as a cisease arising from peritoneal 
inflammation, that is, chiefly from an inflame 
mation of the intestines and omentum. His 
views on this subject, on which the conjec- 
tures of physicians from the time of Hippo- 
crates to his own had been wasted, are ree | 
ceived ag just and complete. He was next 
Sein sole physician to a new charity, 
denominated the General Dispensary, situ- 
ated in Aldersgate-street, and instituted in 
the year 1770. This was the first inftitu- 
tion of the kind established in this country, 
which from its extensive utility has given 
rife to others in most of the principal towns 
of Great Britain. He was admitted a mem- 
berin the royal college of physiciansof London 
in the year 1774, and in the fame year had 
the honour of being elected physician to the 
Charterhouse. He delivered an oration be- 
fore the Medical Society of London, in 1774, 
which he was a primary member. He pubs 
lished it inthe same year, under the title of 
‘¢ Oratio de fe Medica cognoscenda et pro= 
movenda cui accessit via tuta et jucunda cal- 
culum solvendi in’ vesica avinaria inhes 
rentem ab historia Calculosi homines cone 
firmata.’? in the year 1787, he was pre= 
sented with a.gold medal by the Royal Sos 
ciety of Medicine at Paris, for his treatise on 
the ‘allowing prize question: —‘* Rechercer 
quesies sont les Causes de l’Endurcissement 
du tissu cellulaire auquel piusieurs Enfans 
nouveaux-nés sont sujets, et quel doit en 
étre le traitement soit preservatif soit curae 
tif "is account of the disease, which at 
that time was almost unknown to physicians 
in general, and only slightly noticed by a 
few medical writers, is inserted in the His- 
toire de la Societe Royal de Medecine, années 
1787 and 1783. He was elected a fellow of 
the Royal Society of London in 1794, and 
the Philosophical Transactions for the year 
1809 contains his ‘¢ Experiments and Obser- 
vations on the Light which is spontaneously 
emitted with some Degree of Permanency 
‘from various Bodies.” In the year 1301, h 
comm 
