Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

and, in the year 1728, was sent to Edinburgh to be further instructed in the Latin, Greek and French, where to a singular proficiency in these languages, he added a considerable stock of mathematical knowledge.

In the beginning of the year 1731, he resolved to study physic and surgery, and had the happiness of being placed under the tuition of the late Dr. Alexander Monro, a name, which will be revered in that university, as long as science shall be cherished and cultivated. This great professor was esteemed by all, but most by those, who were more immediately under his direction. It was the lot of young Cleghorn to live under his roof; and in one of his letters, the grateful pupil seems to dwell with peculiar pleasure upon the circumstance; observing, that " his amiable manners and unremitting activity in promoting the public welfare, endeared him to all his acquaintance, but more particularly to those, who lived under his roof, and had daily opportunities of admiring the sweetness of his conversation, and the invariable benignity of his disposition."

For five years, he continued to profit by the instruction and example of his excellent master, visiting patients in company with him, and assisting at the dissections in the anatomical theatre; at the same time, he attended in their turn the lectures in botany, materia medica, chemistry, and the theory and practice of medicine, and by his extraordinary diligence, attracted the notice of all his preceptors.

On Dr. Fothergill's arrival from England, at this university, in the year 1733, Dr. Cleghorn was introduced to his acquaintance, and soon became his inseparable companion. These two pupils then studied together the same branches of science, under the same masters, with equal ardour and success; they frequently met to compare the notes, they had collected from the professors, and to communicate their respective observations. Their moments of relaxation,

if that time can be called relaxation, which is devoted to social studies, were spent in a select society of fellow students, of which Fothergill, Russel, and Cuming were associates; a society since incorporated under the name of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh.

Early in 1736, when Cleghorn had scarcely attained his twentieth year, he had acquired so high a character, that he was appointed surgeon in the 22d regiment of foot then stationed in the island of Minorca. During a residence of thirteen years in that island, whatever time could be spared from attending the duties of his station, he employed either in investigating the nature of epidemic diseases, or in gratifying the passion he early imbibed for anatomy.

In 1749, he left Minorca, and came to Ireland with his regiment; and in the autumn following, went to London, and, during the publication of "The Diseases of Minorca," attended Dr. Hunter's anatomical lectures. In the publication of this book, he was materially assisted by his friend Dr. Fothergill.

Of this work, the following eulogium has been pronounced by a competent judge. "It forms a just model for the imitation of future medical writers; it not only exhibits an accurate state of the air, but a minute detail of the vegetable productions of the island; and concludes with medical observations, important in every point of view, and, in some instances, either new, or applied in a manner, which preceding practioners had not admitted."

In 1751, the Doctor settled in Dublin; and, in imitation of Munro and Hunter, began to give annual lectures on anatomy: and, in a few years, after his coming to that city, he was admitted as a lecturer on anatomy, in the university. In the year 1784, the College of Physicians there, elected him an honorary member, at which time, he was promoted from lecturer to be professor in anatomy. He had, likewise, the honour of being one of the original members of

the Irish Academy, for promoting Arts and Sciences, which is now established by Royal authority.

His character may in part, be ascertained from his epistolary correspondence. In one of his letters to Dr. Cuming, he modestly concludes, "My greatest ambition is to be reputed a well-meaning member of society, who wished to be useful in his station, and, who was always of opinion, that honesty is the best policy,, and that a good name is better than riches." In another letter to the same friend, written in 1785, he says "In the year 1772, increasing business and declining health, obliged me to commit the chief care of my annual anatomical course, for the instruction of students in physic and surgery, to my favourite pupil Dr. Purcel, who has not only kept it up ever since, but improved it, so as to advance its reputation and his own yet still I continue to read, as I have done for upwards of twenty years, to a crowded audience, a short course of lectures, the design of which is to give to general scholars, a comprehensive view of the animal kingdom, and to point out to them the conduct of nature in forming their various tribes, and fitting their several organs to their respective modes of life; this affords me an opportunity of exciting in my hearers, an eager desire for anatomical knowledge, by shewing them a variety of elegant preparations, and of raising their minds from the creature to the creator, whose power, wisdom, and goodness is no where displayed to greater advantage, than in the formation of animals."

About 1774, on the death of his only brother, in Scotland, he sent for his surviving family consisting of the widow and nine children, and settled them in Dublin, that he might have it more in his power to afford them that assistance and protection, which they might stand in need of. His eldest nephew William, he educated in the medical profession; but after giving him the best education, which Europe could af ford, and getting him joined with himself in the lec

tureship, the Doctor's pleasing hopes were most unfor tunately frustrated by the young gentleman's death, which happened in 1784.

Dr. Cleghorn, with an acquired independence, devoted his moments of leisure from the severer studies of his profession, to farming and horticulture. But his attention to this employment, did not lessen his care for his relations, who, from a grateful and affectionate regard, looked up to him as a parent. He died in Dec. 1789, in the 74th year of his age.

CLELAND, (JOHN) was the son of Col. Cleland, that celebrated fictitious member of the Spectator's Club, whom Steele describes under the name of Will Honeycombe. He was early in life sent as consul to Smyrna, where, perhaps, he first imbibed those loose principles, which in his "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," are so dangerously exemplified. On his return from Smyrna, he went to the East-Indies, but quarrelling with some of the members of the presidency of Bombay, he made a precipitate retreat from the East, with little or no benefit to his fortune. Being without profession or any settled means of subsistence, he soon fell into pecuniary embarrassments, which at last brought him to prison. In this situation, one of those booksellers, who disgrace the profession, offered him a temporary relief for writing the work above alluded to, which brought a stigma on his name, which time has not obliterated. For this publication, he was called before the privy council; and the circumstances of his distress being known, as well as his being a man of some parts, John Earl Granville, the then president, rescued him from the like temptation, by getting him a pension of 444 dollars per annum, which he enjoyed till his death, and which had so much the desired effect, that, except "The Memoirs of a Coxcomb," which has some smack of dissipated manners, and "The Man of Vol. II. No. 9.

E

Honour," written as an amende honourable for his former exceptionable book; he dedicated the rest of his life to political and philological studies. He died Jan. 23d 1789, at the advanced age of 82.

CLEMENT XIV. (POPE) whose original name was Francis Laurentius Ganganelli, was born at St. Angelo, in the duchy of Urbino, 31st October 1705, and chosen Pope, though not yet a bishop, 19th May 1769, at which time, the see of Rome was involved in a most disagreeable and dangerous contest with the House of Bourbon.

The duties of a prince and pastor are very difficult to reconcile, as policy often appears to exact what religion does not allow, for if the character of a pope inspires clemency, that of a sovereign enjoins severity. Thus we read, that Sixtus V. was a great monarch without being a bigot; and that S. Pius was a good pope and a poor prince. This made an historian say, that such pontiffs, as had been taken from the order of the Cordeliers, and were six in number, were all possessed of the talent of governing well; and those, who had been of the order of the Dominicans were more capable of edifying. Clement was the pope, who most united the above qualities, as a manly piety is more analogous with sovereignty, than an effeminate and pusilanimous devotion. His religion bore the impression of his character and his genius. It was strong and elevated, otherwise he would often have been stopped in his operations; but seeing all things as a great man, and rising superior to public rumours, prejudices and even events, he knew how to be a prince and a pontiff.

The little artifices practised by narrow minds, to obtain their ends he was a stranger to. Though peculiarly calculated for a court, which is accused of being the very vortex of intrigue and chicane, he never deceived the politicians, but by remaining silent:

« ElőzőTovább »