1804.4 
place he employed the winters of 1761, 
62, and 63, in clofe application to the 
ftudy of phyfic. In further purfuit of me- 
dical improvement he vifited London the 
following year; and, during his refidence 
in that city, in the winter of 1764, he had 
the opportunity of purfuing with greater 
intimacy a conneétion which had fubfifted 
fome time with Hugh Lord Willoughby, 
of Parham. Having, through the mect- 
um of their common friend, the Rey. Jobn 
Seddon, of Warrington, been honoured 
with the friendfhip of that excellent ‘and 
accomplifhed nobleman, he became the 
con{tant companion of his walks, and the 
familiar partaker of his focial and literary 
entertainments. The warm attachment of 
his noble patron, the uncommon advan- 
tages he derived from his freedom of ac- 
cefs to a manfion which was the refort of 
the moft celebrated literati of the day, and 
the occafions thereby offered of conciliating 
the efieem and confidence of perfons of 
the firft confequence and rank, all con- 
{fpired to fuggeft to him the refolution of 
fixing his refidence in the metropolis. 
This project, however, was relinquifhcd 
on the fudden death of his highly valued 
friend; an event which to his lateft mo- 
ment he never recolleéted but with the 
tendereit expreflions of regret. During 
the courfe of this winter, at an unufually 
early period of life, he was unanimoufly 
elegéted- Fellow of the Royal Society of 
London. 
Having paffed fome time at Paris, Ham. 
burg, and various other places on the 
Continent, but principally Leyden, at 
which univerfity he graduated in the year 
1765, he returned to his native town, 
where he refided for 2 few months, and, 
on the 24th of March, 1766, he married 
Elizabeth, only daughter of Nathaniel 
Bafinett, Efq. merchant, of London, a 
lady of excellent fenfe, unblemifhed worth, 
and the moft ftudious attention to every 
conjugal and domeftic duty. 
The theatre of Dr. Percival’s profef- 
fional prattice now became the object of 
his ferious deliberations ; and, after a va- 
riety of plans propofed and rejected, his 
choice was ultimately diref&ted to Man- 
chefter, in which town he fettled in the 
year 1767, and there continued, tili his 
death, in the unremitting exercife of his 
profeffion, 
Of his eminence in that profeffion little 
needs to be faid. His merits as a practi- 
tioner of phyfic, and not lefs the benefits 
conferred by him on medical {cience, are 
too generally underftood, and confefled, to 
require any minutenefs of detail, A quick 
Account of Dr. Thomas Percival. 
3IF 
penetration, a difcriminating judgment, a 
patient attention, a comprehenfive know- 
ledge, and, above all, a folemn fenie of 
re(ponfibility, were the endowments which 
fo confpicuovilly fitted him at ence to dif- 
charge the duties and to extend the boun- 
davies of the healing art. His external 
accomplifhments and manners were alike 
happily adapted to the offices of his pro- 
feflion. Jo an addrefs peculiarly en- 
gaging from its uncommon mixture of 
dignity, refpectfulnefs, and eafe, was 
united a gravity of deportment that be- 
{poke the ferioulnefs of intereft, not the 
gloom of apprehenfion. The expreffion 
of a benign fympathy, which on every oc- 
cafion of diftrefs his features borrowed 
from the genuine feelings of the kindet 
commiferation, prefented him likewife the 
comforter in the phyfician. And the to- 
pics of encouragement and confolaiion, 
whieh the goodnels of his heart ani the 
ample ffores of his cultivated mind fo 
abundantly fupplied, enabled him to ad- 
minifter relief to the wounds of the f{pirit 
with no lefs efficacy tnan to the difeafes of 
the body. In truth, the admirable pi@ture 
fo lately drawn by his own mafterly pen- 
cil, in that volume in which he has deli- 
neated the requifites and qualifications of 
the medical practitioner,* difplays the 
moft exact portraiture of himfelf: and 
whilft he there depicted thole excellencies 
af the medical charaéter, which he approv- 
ed in theory, be uncon{cioufly but de- 
{cribed thofe which he every day exempli- 
fied in prattice. Indeed, in that mof ya- 
luable treatife, which he exprefsly dedi 
cated as a “ paternal lezacy’’ to a much 
loved fon, and which may now be regard- 
ed as bis hiquelt to his brethren ef the 
faculty, and to the public, he has left be- 
hind him a monument of profefiional in- 
tegrity and honour, which will exhibit him 
to thofe of after times, what his life and 
conduct have done to his contemporaries, 
one of the woxthielt objects of their admi- 
ration and efteem. 
As a literary character Dr. Percival 
held a dulinguifhed rank. His earlier 
publications were devoted to enquiries 
extenfively medical and philofophical, and 
have long obtained for their author high 
and deferved reputation amongit the learn- 
ed, fiom the powers which they evince of 
fagacious invention, cautious tavetiga- 
tion, and ftientific refearch. The fubjeéts 
\ 
* Medical Ethics, or a Code of Inftitutes 
and Precepts, adapted to the profefiional con- 
duct of Phyficians and Surgeons, publifhed 
by Dr, Percival in the year 1803, 
which 
(a 
