obvious that the Doctor evinced very great anxiety to avail himself of Mr SMELLIES aid. One circumstance on this subject has been frequently mentioned by Mr SMELLIE to his friends,—that the original manuscript of the work was prodigiously redundant; insomuch that one of the chapters alone, as originally written, and produced for printing, would have nearly equalled the size of the whole work as first printed; and that Mr SMELLIE compressed that, and all the rest of the work, into reasonable bounds.

In a former part of these Memoirs we have inserted a letter from Dr WILLIAM WRIGHT, an eminent physician still living, in which the entire composition of the Domestic Medicine is attributed to Mr SMELLIE, on the authority of Dr GILBERT STUART; and this is also maintained by many others still in life. But we are inclined to believe that this carries the matter too far, and that the preceding account of it is correct.

THE Domestic Medicine, as already mentioned, was first published at Edinburgh in 1770; and so great was its success that it has gone through twenty`regular editions of

6000 copies each, besides many pirated edi tions in Ireland and America, and some even in Britain; which latter were reprinted from the earlier editions, after the expiration of the copy right, and consequently did not contain the progressive improvements, made by the author.

WHILE he remained in Edinburgh, Dr BUCHAN became possessed, by bequest, of the philosophical apparatus of JAMES FERGU SON the celebrated astronomer and lecturer on experimental philosophy, and attempted to give a popular course of lectures on the subjects which had been long ably and successfully handled by that eminent and selftaught philosopher. Neither these lectures nor his medical practice succeeding to his wishes, the Doctor went up to London, where he expected that the fame of his work would have procured him a ready introduction to extensive and profitable practice. But his manners and habits again disappointed his views; and, though his book long preserved the most extensive and unrivalled fame, the author pined in obscurity, and died poor. During his residence in London, he published two other useful works, both of them single

octavo volumes ;-a Treatise on the Venereal Disease, which went through three editions; and Advice to Mothers on the subject of their own Health, and on the means of promoting the Health, Strength, and Beauty of their Offspring. He died at London in

1805:

THE Correspondence between Dr BUCHAN and Mr SMELLIE, as already observed, appears to have commenced about the year 1759 or 1760. Like most of the letters and papers found in the repositories of Mr SMELLIE, the dates of the remaining letters are generally deficient, which precludes the possibility of arranging them in any certain order. This correspondence appears to have been commenced by Dr BUCHAN, with a proposal or advice to his friend and companion to abandon what he deemed the servile occupation of a journeyman printer. The first letter of the following series, but which evidently alludes to a former correspondence on the subject, proposes that Mr SMELLIE should devote himself to the study of medicine. From two allusions in the answer to this proposal by Mr SMELLIE, this part of the correspondence appears to have taken place about the close of VOL. I.

Р

1759, or the commencement of 1760, as Mr. SMELLIE mentions the agreement he had entered into with Messrs MURRAY & COCHRANE as a recent event, and says that the professor of anatomy was then too far advanced in his course for beginning to attend his lectures that season.

It is quite obvious from the tenor of this correspondence, especially at its commencement, that Dr BUCHAN was very eager to have seduced Mr SMELLIE from his situation of corrector of the press, and to have conferred upon him the splendid office of dispenser of medicines, anatomical assistant, and literary. drudge at Ackworth; with a quantum sufficit of meat and drink as his hire, but without money or cloathing. The Doctor had proba-. bly by this time planned the composition of his great work, Domestic Medicine, or some other medical performance, with a view of bringing himself into notice; and, conscious that he required important aid, he appears to have wished to exchange his then indolent. shopman, Mr Rutherford, for a person whom he believed, and afterwards found to be qua lified to maturate his plans, and to carry them into successful execution, as will the sequel.

appear

in

No. XLIII.

To Mr WILLIAM SMELLIE from Dr WILLIAM

DEAR SMELLIE,

BUCHAN.

No date.

The only scheme that I can put you upon, or assist you in, is as follows. in, is as follows. Get as much knowledge picked up at Edinburgh this winter as possible, and hold yourself in readiness to come up along with me about the end of May next; and you shall be welcome to live with me until you learn pharmacy, and see as much practice as to be able to set up for yourself. If you make yourself very useful to me, you shall be upon the same footing with Mr Rutherford; viz. bed, board, washing, &c. free and if you don't chuse to serve me in that capacity, which indeed will only be serving yourself, you shall have all these things upon the most reasonable terms in my house; and I will trust you for payment until you shall be in a capacity. This, in one word, is the scheme, and I would have you consider of it.