nearer to each other. Dr. Jebb, while he recommended reform, regarded the foundations of the government as sacred, and Mr. Jones is considered, by those who have the best opportunities of judging, a follower of the old whigs, as much in their attachment to the principles of the constitution as in their ardour for civil and religious liberty.

*

To his political persuasions he has undoubtedly sacrificed the mastership of Trinity. It was vacant in 1798 by the death of Dr. Postlethwaite; and his character, his abilities, his eminent services as tutor, every circumstance but that of his decided opposition to the measures of government, directed the Crown, which nominates the master, to Mr. Jones as the proper person to be appointed.

The estimate of Mr. Jones's literary character is not to be formed from his knowledge of mathematics alone. The lectures which he occasionally delivers on moral and metaphysical subjects, discover that he has extended to them the same depth and ingenuity of research which distinguish his mathematical inquiries; and he has always maintained the character of an elegant as well as of a profound scholar. The attractions of his conversation do not arise more from the variety of his knowledge and the happiness of his humour, than from the mildness, the candour, and the benevolence of his manner. His private character is in the highest degree respectable and amiable, and the best evidence of it is to be found in the universal esteem and affection of the numerous individuals with whom his public situation has in a long series of years connected him.

Worth 1300l. per annum.

DR. TROTTER,

PHYSICIAN TO THE FLEET.

IT has been frequently observed, that the lives of literary men are enlivened by few incidents, and there, fore seldom afford any great scope for biographical remark; for variety of action is not to be expected in the closet, or in the privacy of study: a simple narrative, therefore, of their writings and opinions is all that we can hope to find in their history. The lives of medical authors more particularly exemplify this observation: as the promulgation of a new theory of disease, that supplants its predecessor, perhaps forms the most busy and enterprizing scene of a physician's labours. The practice of the art itself very much resembles the events of ordinary life; and the man who enriches himself by it, is more frequently to be considered as the fashionable gentleman than the intelligent philosopher.

The subject of the present memoir forms an exception to this observation on the general tenor of the lives of literary men; for Dr. Trotter filled a very active and conspicuous station in the naval service during the late war. He was nominated early in the year 1794 physician to the channel fleet by Earl Howe; and it may be mentioned as a circumstance honourable to both parties, that the appointment was conferred without any previous application or personal acquaintance beyond the doctor's professional reputation. That discerning officer was cautious whom

he

he selected for employments to which considerable responsibility was attached, and never allowed prepossession or caprice to influence his public measures. Among medical men in the navy, where there is, perhaps, an equal proportion of talent with the profession at large, it was proper to select as physician one whose preparatory studies, extensive observation, and ample experience, had fully qualified him to discharge the difficult and important duties of this office.

Doctor Trotter is a native of Roxburghshire, in Scotland, and received his classical and medical

* The family of this gentleman is of great antiquity in Scotland, and the name of Trotter is among the first surnames used in that country. According to tradition, their descent comes from the Earl of Marr, and they bear the boar's heads in their arms, as cadets of that ancient house. A number of the chief families are cadets of the same descent, and bear similar distinctions in their arms; such as the Nisbets of that ilk, and their alliances; Abercromby, of Birkenbey; Spottiswoode of that ilk; Gordons, of Lochinvan, and their cadets, the Chisholms, Drummonds, &c. The Trotters possessed considerable property in the Mers, and the estates of Mainside, Easter Housebyers, &c. in Roxburghshire; but following the Stuarts in the different rebellions, they shared the same fate with others who were attached to that unfortunate family, and were reduced to poverty and obscurity.

From an ancient manuscript still legible, the name is faid to have originated from the following incident: One of the family had been entrusted by his royal master (prior to Bruce) with some important embassy; he returned crowned with success, and much sooner than was expected, which made the King exclaim, at his approach, "Well has he trotted, and Trotter henceforth shall "his name be." It is added, that he was loaded with presents, and received gifts of many lands, for executing this trust with so much ability.

N.B. This note is taken from a book on Heraldry, printed in 1702.

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education at the college of Edinburgh. In March 1782, when very young, he was appointed surgeon in the royal navy; and he relates, in the introduction to his Observations on Scurvy, that he was the first man of his corps who was obliged to seek employment in the African trade. In this voyage he met with a new species of scurvy among the slaves, which laid the foundation for his treatise on that disease. In 1789, he was examined before the select committee of the House of Commons on the slave trade, and gave a connected and scientific evidence against that horrid traffic in human flesh.

On his return from Africa, in 1785, he settled in a market-town in the county of Northumberland, and during his residence there, he passed through the different public and private examinations at the college of Edinburgh, and obtained a Doctor's degree in 1788. The subject of his inaugural dissertation was De ebrietate ejusque effectibus in corpus humanum. This thesis drew warm encomiums from Dr. Cullen, and is inscribed in elegant and classical language to Sir A.Macdonald and J.Spottiswoode, Esq. Sackvillestreet, London. From this remote situation he was drawn by the friendship of Admiral Roddam, who lived in the neighbourhood, and was appointed to the flag-ship at Portsmouth, when that officer received the command there in 1789; at this period he published his review of the medical department of the navy; and the greater part of his proposed improvements have been adopted, to the great advantage of the public service. In 1790 a second and improved edition of Observations on Scurvy made its appear

ance.

In this edition, our author has ingeniously made use of the pneumatic chemistry to explain the morbid phenomena in scurvy; and he undoubtedly has the honour of being the first physician who applied the new doctrines of chemistry to elucidate a diseased state of body, and to explain the action of medicines upon the constitution. In December 1793 he was appointed physician to the royal hospital at Portsmouth, and in the spring following (as we have mentioned above) physician to the fleet.

Dr. Trotter, whilst at Edinburgh, was contemporary with many young physicians, now of the first practice, and filling the most eminent stations in different countries; he was a favourite pupil with the late Dr. Cullen, to whose memory, in his second edition of Observations on Scurvy, he has dedicated the finest panegyric that has been pronounced on that venerable and illustrious professor.

But much as he revered the doctrines of his preceptor, he has deemed it no heresy to copy what was good in the Brunonian system, and to regulate his practice accordingly. His treatment of fever is founded on the principles of Brown, but without any servile adherence, and seems rather the experience of a clinical observer, than the routine of a fixed method of cure. The chapter on Typhus, in the first volume of Medicina Nautica, is his most finished performance as a practical writer; for in it we perceive such minute attention to every symptom and circumstance, as clearly points out the sick-bed as the only source from whence such accurate observations could be drawn.