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JOHN CONRAD & CO, PHILADELPHIA; M. & J. CONRAD & Co. BALTIMORE; SOMERVELL & CONRAD, PETERSBURG; AND BONSAL, CONRAD, & co.

NORFOLK.

FRINTED BY T. & G. PALMER, 116, HIGH STREET.

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DR. JAMES CURRIE was born at Kirkpatrick-Fleming, in Dumfriesshire, on May 31st, 1756. His father was the established minister of that parish, whence he afterwards removed to that of Middlebie. Dr. Currie was an only son: of six sisters, two alone are now surviving. He received the rudiments of learning at the parish school of his native place, whence he was transferred to the grammar school of Dumfries, one of the most reputable seminaries of the kind in Scotland. His original destination was for a commercial life, and he passed some years of his youth in Virginia, in a mercantile station. Disliking this profession, and unwilling to be a witness of the impending troubles in the American colonies, he quitted that country in 1776, and, in the following year, commenced a course of medical study at the university of Edinburgh, which occupied him almost without interruption for three years.

VOL. V. NO. XXIX.

A prospect of an appointment in the medical staff of the army, which would not admit of the usual delay of an Edinburgh graduation, induced him to take the degree of doctor of physic at Glasgow. He arrived, however, in London too late for the expected place; but still determining to go abroad, he had taken his passage in a ship for Jamaica, when a severe indisposition prevented his sailing, and entirely changed his lot in life. He renounced his first intention; and, after some consideration respecting an eligible settlement, he fixed upon the commercial and rapidly increasing town of Liverpool, which became his residence from the year 1781.

The liberal and enlightened character which has long distinguished many of the leading inhabitants of that place, rendered it a peculiarly favourable theatre for the display of the moral and intellectual endowments for which Dr. Currie was

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conspicuous, and he soon rose into general esteem. Indeed, it was not possible, even upon a casual acquaintance, for a judge of mankind to fail of being struck by his manly urbanity of behaviour, by the elegance and variety of his conversation, by the solid sense and sagacity of his remarks, and by the tokens of a feeling heart, which graced and dignified the qualities of his understanding. No man was ever more highly regarded by his friends; no physician ever inspired more confidence and attachment in his patients.

In 1783, Dr. Currie made a very desirable matrimonial connexion with Lucy, the daughter of William Wallace, Esq., an Irish merchant in Liverpool. Of this marriage a numerous and amiable family was the fruit, by which his name promises to be worthily perpetuated. His professional employment rapidly increased; he was elected one of the physicians of the infirmary, and took his station among the distinguished characters of the place of his residence.

His first appearance from the press was on occasion of the lamented death of his intimate friend Dr. Bell, a young physician, of great hopes, settled at Manchester. His elegant and interesting tribute to the memory of this person was published in 1785, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Manchester Philosophical and Literary Society, of which they were both members. He was elected a member of the London Medical Society in 1790, and communicated to it a paper on Tetanus and Convulsive Disorders, published in the third volume of its memoirs. In 1792 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. A very curious and instructive account of the remarkable effects of a shipwreck, communicated by him to that body, was published in the Philosophical Transactions of that year.

The mind of Dr. Currie was not made to be confined to a narrow range of speculation, and nothing interesting to human society was in

different to, or unconsidered, by him. The war with France, consequent to its great revolutionary struggle, was regarded by him, as it was by many other philanthropists, with disapprobation, with respect as well to its principles, as to its probable effect on the happiness of both countries. A pamphlet which appeared in 1793, under the title of A Letter, Commercial and Political, addressed to the Right Hon. William Pitt, by Jasper Wilson, Esq., was generally understood to proceed from his pen. The energy of language, the weight of argument, and the extent of information, displayed in it, drew upon it a large share of notice. It soon attained a second edition, and various answers attested the degree of importance attached to it in the public estimation. One of the respondents took the unwarrantable liberty of directly addressing Dr. Currie, in print, as the author, at the same time affecting the familiarity of an intimate acquaintance, although no correspondence between them had subsisted for a number of years. It can scarcely be doubted, that this infringement of the rules of liberal controversy was made with the malignant purpose of exposing Dr. Currie to popular odium, and injuring him in his profession. He felt it as such; but the particular line of his principal connexions, together with the solid basis of the character he had established, enabled him to despise the efforts of party malice.

The greater distinction a professional man acquires from pursuits not belonging to his profession, the more necessary it becomes for him to bring himself into notice as a successful votary of the art or science to which his primary attention is due. Of this point Dr. Currie was very far from being neglectful. To those who employed him he was abundantly known as a skilful and sedulous practitioner, and the medical papers he had already published gave him reputation among his brethren. This reputation was widely extended, and raised to an emi

nent degree, by a publication which first appeared in October, 1797, entitled "Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Febrile Diseases; with Observations on the Nature of Fever, and on the Effects of Opium, Alcohol, and Inanition." The practice of affusion of cold water in fevers, which is the leading topic in this work, was suggested to the author by Dr. Wright's narrative in the London Medical Journal of his successful treatment of a fever in a homeward-bound ship from Jamaica. Dr. Currie copied and greatly extended it, and investigated the principles by which its use should be directed and regulated. He discovered that the safety and advantage of the application of cold was proportionate to the existing augmentation of the animal heat; and he found the thermometer a very valuable instrument to direct the practitioner's judgment in febrile cases. He may therefore be considered as the principal author of a practice which has already been at tended with extraordinary success in numerous instances, and bids fair to prove one of the greatest medical improvements in modern times. The work, which contained many ingenious speculations and valuable observations, was very generally read and admired. A new volume was added to it in 1804, consisting of much interesting matter on different topics, especially in confirmation of the doctrine and practice of the former volume respecting cold affu. sion. The free and successful employment of this remedy, in the scarlatina, was one of its most important articles. The author had the satisfaction of receiving numerous acknowledgments of the benefit derived from his instructions, both in private and in naval and military practice. He himself was so much convinced of the utility of the methods he recommended, that a revision of the whole work, for a new edition, was one of the latest labours of his life.

Dr. Currie might now, without

danger to his professional character, indulge his inclination for the ornamental parts of literature; and an occasion offered in which he had the happiness of rendering his taste and his benevolence equally conspicuous. On a visit to his native country, in 1792, he had become personally acquainted with that rustic son of genius, Robert Burns. This extraordinary, but unfortunate man, having, at his death, left his family in great indigence, a subscription was made in Scotland for their immediate relief, and at the same time a design was formed of publishing an edition of his printed works and remains for their emolument. Mr. Syme, of Ryedale, an old and intimate friend of Dr. Currie, strongly urged him to undertake the office of editor; and to this request, in which other friends of the poet's memory concurred, he could not withhold his acquiescence, notwithstanding his multiplied engagements. In 1800, he published in 4 vols. 8vo. "The Works of Robert Burns, with an Account of his Life, and a Criticism on his Writings; to which are prefixed, some Observations on the Character and Condition of the Scottish Peasantry." These volumes were a rich treat to the lovers of poetry and elegant literature, and Dr. Currie's part in them, as a biographer and critic, was greatly admired, as well for beauty of style as for liberality of sentiment and sagacity of remark. If any objection was made to him as an editor, on account of unnecessary extension of the materials, the kind purpose for which the publication was undertaken pleaded his excuse with all who were capable of feeling its force. Its success fully equalled the most sanguine expectations. Repeated editions produced a balance of profit, which formed a little fortune for the destitute family; and Dr. Currie might congratulate himself with having been one of the most effectual friends of departed genius that the annals of British poetry record.

Every plan for promoting liberal studies and the improvement of the

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