. / 
é 
7805.) 
prefs defire, by the Chancellor D’Ofterman. 
He alfo received many other complimentary- 
letters, fome of them accompanied with libe- 
ral prefents, both from individuals and foci- 
eties in feveral of the Weft India Ilands, 
‘ expreflive of their fenfe of the many and 
great advantages derived from his work. In 
addition to thie, he has publithed a Treatife 
on the Venereal Difeafe, which has pated 
through three editions. His laft work is m- 
titled Advice to Mothers,* and on this, as on 
all other occafions, he pleads the caule of the 
bef interefts of humanity, We under‘tand 
that he has left a confiderable quantity of 
manufcripts, and fome written memorials of 
his own life, which will probably be edited 
by his fon, who has lately publifhed a Trea- 
tife written with no {mall fhare of medical 
acumen. The leading trait of the Dottor’s 
character was benevolence and good-will to 
men of every defcription, if we except the 
apothecaries! ‘That clats of people he con- 
fidered as degrading the fcience of medt- 
cine, by converting it into a fordid callmg, 
‘and too often preventing any good that could 
e expected from it, by loading the ftomach 
of the patient with drugs, without having 
previoully formed any jut idea of the nature 
of the difeafe. This benevolent temper, 
which could never refift the call, or even the 
appearance, of diftrefs, greatly injured the 
Doétor’s pecuniary circumftances ; although 
it is now afcertained, that, even in his latter 
years, he was in the annual receipt of con- 
fiderably more money than any perfon ima- 
gined. Dr. Buchan poffefied a pleating ex- 
terior, a fine countenance, great fuavity of 
manners, aad an aftonifhing fund of amutfing 
anecdotes, which Ae told in aitich a manner as 
to delight his affociates. Both the figure 
and face of the author of the Domeftic Me- 
dicine mutt be allowed to have been not 
only peculialy interefting, but to have alfo 
difplayed all the charaéteriftics of mafculine 
beauty. In form he exceeded the common 
ftandard ; his teatures were animated with a 
vivid glow of health ; he poffeiled the ea- 
gle’s eye, and even the eagle’s beak, if a 
fine aquiline nofe may be fo denominated ; 
while his perfon, tall, athletic, and well-pro- 
portioned, exhibited an union of ftrength 
and fymmetry. When age had “ filvered 
o’er his head,”’ it acquired a new dignity, 
fill mingled, however, with grace, and re- 
fembled thofe highly-wrought performances 
which we Peetnics! find copied from nature, 
and transferred to canvas, by the pencil of 
one of the old mafters. He alfo enjoyed 
that grand defideratum, an excellent conflitu- 
tion, and never experienced any ferious ill- 
nels until within a year of his death, when 
his health began at firft to deciine, but gradu- 
* Advice to Mothers on the Subject of 
\ their own Health, and on the Meaus of pro- 
: “moting the Health, Strength, and Beauty of 
their Offspring, 1 vol. 8vo. 
4 
‘The late Dr. Puchini 
ally, and without precipitation. It has beea 
already mentioned, that the Doétor, at, an 
early period of his life, exhibited a marked 
predilection for mathematics. To this it may 
be added, that. he alfo had a great tafte, 
while at Edinburgh, for aftronomy, and em- 
ployed many hours of his life in attaining a 
precife knowledge of the laws which regulate 
the planetary fyftem. With thele he joined 
a purluit, far different indeed, and ofa very 
diffimilar nature ; a purfuit which, although 
it may grace, yet but feldom accompanies, 
graver ftudies. ‘ihis was a tafte for poctry, 
cultivated afliduoufly, and with fuccefs, at 
his leifure moments, until the lateft:period 
of his life. The writer of this article has 
more than one effort of the Doctor’s Mafe im 
his poffeffion. He alfo knows, that when he 
was accuftomed to attend the late General 
Murray, uncle to the prefent Duke of Athol, 
at a houfe built by the latter near to the {pot 
where William and Harold contended for the 
fovereignty of England, that he was greatly 
ftruck with the idea of traverting the field of 
battle, on which the Saxon Prince fell, and 
the Norman Chief triumphed ! This pro- 
duced fome excellent Lines, addreffed to 
Battle Abbey; a moft magnificent religious 
houte, royally founded, and now falling fatt 
into decay, which was originally erected by 
the Conqueror, as an expiatiom and atone- 
ment tor the blood fhed, and the murders . 
and ravifhments committed, by him and his 
followers, who had faerificed every prmciplé 
of jnftice to a lawlefs ambition, the luft of 
power, and the defire of plunder! Even to 
his laft hour, he lighted up imcenfe at the 
fhrine of the Mufes; for Dr. Buchan, like 
Cornaro, the able Venetian—an author who 
alfo wrote on health—employed his pen, and 
was in full poffeflion of all his faculties, when 
almoft an octogenarian. The  diforder 
which proved fatal, at length affumed 
an alarming appearance, and indicated 
fymptoms of water in the cheft. He ne- 
ver once complained, or fhewed any appres 
henfions of death, of whofe approach he was, 
hoewever, periectly fentible, and even fre- 
quently fpoke of the event without emotion. 
He was abroad on the very day previcully to 
his death, which occurred on the 25th of Fe- 
bruary, 1805, at nine o’clock in the evening, 
in an attempt to reach his bed from the fofa, 
where he had juf been reclining, and talking 
in his ufual placid manner. Even the laft act 
of his life was peculiarly felicitous, having 
expired in this manner without any previous 
confinement, in the full poflefiion of all his 
faculties, without any confiderable degree of 
pain, and almot without a groan! Thus 
died Dr. Buchan, in the 76th year of his age, 
The life of this physician will confitute an 
epoch in the hittory of medicine, Since the 
first appearance ot. the Domeftic Medicine, 
pharmacy has in a great mneafure been ref- - 
cued from thejargon of a barbarqus techno- 
logy, and the reguflai-bre¢d and meritorious 
practitioner 
