she never expectorated by coughing any kind of purulent matter that could induce me to suppose her lungs were considerably diseased. The bloody matter that she brought up always came away by vomiting, preceded by a more morbid than ordinary irritability of the stomach, soreness, and extreme anxiety.

Early in the spring 1789, her urine began to pass per anum, loaded with the same kind of gravel that had come away by the catheter. This gave her some respite with respect to her vomiting, though she continued to throw up more or less urine as well as gravel that very week. This new course of her water gave her a very troublesome te nesmus; but the stone in the bladder, as well as the pain and disagreeableness arising from the sensation of its descent, became daily less fatiguing. Her strength and spirits decayed fast, and the fever that she had before continually labored under, grew more completely hectical. After the 13th of May, her bladder never became so much distended with urine as it had been before, and both this and the gravel now generally past her once in twenty-four hours, either by vomiting or purging. She however introduced the catheter herself, and sometimes drew off her urine to the quantity of a gill. The secretion of urine, as well as the formation of calculi, evidently diminished in proportion to her loss of strength, and the increase of the diarrhoea. The menses entirely ceased. During the latter part of spring and summer, she became quite paralytic at times; the frequency of vomiting increased, and she had several convulsion fits after vomiting. She grew more and more emaciated; her convulsions returned more frequently; her fever was more putrid; she at last became lethargic; and on the 11th of August, death, which she had long and ardently wished for, put a period to a series of the most complicated and singular misery that I have ever seen since my acquaintance with disease.

Appearances on Dissection.Thorax.-In this cavity there was nothing appeared unnatural, except a considerable adhesion of the right lobe of the lungs to the pleura.

Abdomen.--The omentum was principally wasted, but not more than is commonly the case with those who die tabid. It was however of a dark gangrenous color pretty generally. The stomach appeared very much changed from Its natural color, and in a gangrenous state, containing a semi-purulent matter, of a fœtid scent.

Liver and gall-bladder.-There were no preternatural adhesions of the former, nor gall-stones in the latter, and their color, &c. not unusual.

Intestines.

Intestines. In these there are no ruptures, either of their muscular coats, blood-vessels, or lymphatics, that we could discover. The villous coat was much destroyed, and the color of the intestines darker than is common, except the duodenum, which was very much discolored with the bile.

Kidneys and ureters.-In these there was no considerable deviation from a state of soundness; they were lax or flabby, but no rupture of any of their vessels, or any calculi disco verable.

Urinary bladder.-This was in its natural situation, not the least thickened, had no sand or gravel in it, nor did it adhere preternaturally to any of the circumjacent parts; and the muscular sphincter of its neck yielded readily to the introduction of the finger from the bladder into the urethra.

Uterus. In its cavity was contained about a drachm of thick, darkish, foetid pus, but no other appearance of disease in its body.

Tube Fallopiana were larger than common in virgins, and strung with several hydatids or vesiculæ, the size of a walnut, filled with a watery glutinous humor. Corpora fimbriata had a gangrenous appearance.

Ovaria were enlarged to the size of a small hen's egg, and contained a considerable quantity of a clear limpid fluid immediately under the first coat.

COLLECTANEA MEDICA,

CONSISTING OF

ANECDOTES, FACTS, EXTRACTS, ILLUSTRATIONS, QUERIES, SUGGESTIONS, &c.

RELATING TO THE

History or the Art of Medicine, and the Auxiliary Sciences,

Biographical Account of M. de Fourcroy. By THOMAS THOMSON, M.D. F.R.S.

LITERARY men may be divided into three classes. Some make a great figure during their life-time; but death erases their names from the annals of science, and they sink into the grave and obscurity at once. Such were Dr. Mead and Sir John Hill. Some are little known during their lifetime, and spend their days in obscurity and penury; but when death has once closed the scene, their reputation rises untarnished by envy, and unsullied by emulation, and flows

on like a mighty river, the broader, and deeper, and greater, the farther it advances. Such, in some respects, were Kepler and Scheele. Some are so unfortunate, through imprudence, or a perverse train of circumstances, neither to acquire reputation during their lives, nor after their death; while their more successful contemporaries, with less labor, and less merit, gather all the laurels which they had earned. It would be invidious to mention the names of any who unfortunately belong to this class; but they will readily occur to every one acquainted with the history of science. Every tyro in algebra is familiar with Cardan's rules for the solution of cubic equations, while the name of the real discoverer of these rules is scarcely known, except to mathematical antiquaries. M. de Fourcroy, the subject of this article, made so conspicuous a figure during his life-time, that it would by no means surprise us if he should finally take his place among that class of literary men whom we characterised in the first place: not that he wanted merit; for it is not so much merit, as a regard to distributive justice, which leads to the classification. Who will be hardy enough to affirm that Churchill wanted merit as a poet? During his short and rapid literary career, he appeared to wield the thunderbolts in his hand, and was an object of dread and adoration, like a kind of divinity. But where is his reputation now? It has sunk, since his death, as much below the true level, as it rose above it during his life-time. And this we believe will always be the case. Mankind will atone for the excessive adulation which they pay to a man during his life-time, by a corresponding negligence after his death.

Antoine François de Fourcroy, Comte of the French Empire, Counsellor of State, Commander of the Legion of Honour, Member of the Institute, and of most scientific societies in Europe, Professor of Chemistry at the Museum of Natural History, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and Teacher in the Polytechnic School, was born at Paris, on the 15th of June, 1755, and was the son of Jean Michel de Fourcroy and of Jeanne Laugier.

His family had long resided in the capital, and several of his ancestors had distinguished themselves at the bar. One of them, during the reign of Charles IX. was honored with the epithet of fori decus.

Antoine François de Fourcroy sprung from a branch of the family that had gradually sunk into poverty. His father exercised in Paris the trade of an apothecary, in consequence of a charge which he held in the house of the Duke of Orleans. The Corporation of Apothecaries having obtained the general suppression of all such charges, M. de Fourcroy, the father,

was

was obliged to renounce his mode of livelihood; and his son grew up in the midst of the poverty produced by the monopoly of the privileged bodies in Paris. He felt this situation the more keenly, because he possessed from nature an extreme sensibility of temper. When he lost his mother, at the age of seven years, he attempted to throw himself into her grave. The care of an elder sister preserved him with' difficulty till he reached the age at which it was usual to be sent to the college. Here he was unlucky enough to meet with a brutal master, who conceived an aversion to him, and treated him with cruelty. The consequence was a dislike to study; and he quitted the college at the age of 14, somewhat less informed than when he went to it.

His poverty now was such, that he was under the necessity of endeavoring to support himself by commencing writingmaster. He had even some thoughts of going upon the stage; but was prevented by the hisses bestowed upon a friend of his, who had unadvisedly entered upon that perilous career, and was treated in consequence without mercy by the audience. While uncertain what plan to follow, the advice of Viq. d'Azyr induced him to commence the study of medicine.

This great anatomist was an acquaintance of M. de Fourcroy, the father, Struck with the appearance of his son, and the courage with which he struggled with his bad fortune, he conceived an affection for him, and promised to direct his studies, and even to assist him during their progress. The study of medicine to a man in his situation was by no means an easy task. He was obliged to lodge in a garret, so low in the roof that he could only stand upright in the centre of the room. Beside him lodged a water-carrier, with a family of twelve children. Fourcroy acted as physician to this numerous family; and in recompense was always supplied with abundance of water. He contrived to support himself by giving lessons to other students, by facilitating the researches of richer writers, and by some translations which he sold to a bookseller. For these he was only half paid; but the conscientious bookseller offered, thirty years afterwards, to make up the deficiency, when his creditor was become Director General of Public Instruction.

Fourcroy studied with so much zeal and ardour that he soon became well acquainted with the subject of medicine. But this was not sufficient. It was necessary to get a doctor's degree; and all the expenses, at that time, amounted to 250 sterling. An old physician, Dr. Diest, had left funds to the faculty to give a gratuitous degree and license, once every two years, to the poor student who should best deserve

them. Fourcroy was the most conspicuous student at that time in Paris. He would therefore have reaped the benefit of this benevolent institution, had it not been for the unlucky situation in which he was placed. There happened to exist a quarrel between the faculty charged with the education of medical men and the granting of degrees, and a society recently established by government for the improvement of the medical art. This dispute had been carried to a great length, and had attracted the attention of all the frivolous and idle inhabitants of Paris. Viq. d'Azyr was secretary to the society, and of course one of its most active champions, and was in consequence particularly obnoxious to the Faculty of Medicine at Paris. Fourcroy was unluckily the acknowledged protegée of this eminent anatomist. This was suffi cient to induce the Faculty of Medicine to refuse him a gratuitous degree. He would have been excluded in consequence from entering upon the career of a practitioner, had not the society, enraged at this treatment, and influenced by a violent party spirit, formed a subscription, and contributed the necessary expences,

It was no longer possible to refuse M. de Fourcroy the degree of Doctor, when he was thus enabled to pay for it, But above the simple degree of Doctor, there was a higher one, entitled Docteur Regent, which depended entirely upon the votes of the faculty. It was unanimously refused to M. de Fourcroy. This refusal put it out of his power afterwards to commence teacher in the medical school, and gave the medical faculty the melancholy satisfaction of not being able to enrol among their number the most celebrated professor in Paris. This violent and unjust conduct of the faculty of medicine made a deep impression in the mind of Fourcroy, and contributed not a little to the subsequent downfall of that powerful body.

Fourcroy being thus entitled to practise in Paris, his success depended entirely upon the reputation which he could contrive to establish. For this purpose he devoted himself to the sciences connected with medicine, as the shortest and most certain road by which he could reach his object. His first writings showed no predilection for any particular branch of science. He wrote upon chemistry, anatomy, and on natural history. He published an Abridgment of the History of Insects, and a Description of the Burse Mucose of the Tendons. This last piece seems to have given him the greatest celebrity: for in 1785 he was admitted, in conse quence of it, into the Academy of Sciences as an anatomist but the reputation of Bucquet, which at that time was very high, gradually directed his particular attention to chemistry