of ninety years of age, though feeble, he was perfectly free from any distemper, enjoying his rational faculties and all his senses, except that of hearing, which had been impaired for several years. His decay was very gradual, indicating that he would one day drop like a fruit fully ripe; and he would often say that he "wondered he was so long alive; that for many years he had been prepared for death, and was entirely resigned to the will of God, either to take him from this world, or continue him longer in it, as should seem best to him." He would sometimes say, "I shall leave you one day or other when you do not expect it;" and indeed the illness which carried him off was but of two or three days' continuance, and seemed rather the natural decay of a strong constitution than any real distemper. There appeared nothing in him to which old age is usually subject; for, as he was free from bodily pain, his mind seemed always composed, calm, and serene. would sometimes reflect on his past life with satisfaction, whilst he declared that, during his whole practice, he had never denied his advice to the poor, or had, on any occasion, neglected his patient. He was governor of almost every hospital in London, to each of which, besides a donation of £100 during his lifetime, he left a legacy at his death. He was a benefactor to the poor, and formed the plan for bringing up the children in the Foundling hospital.

He

He died January 11th, 1753, and was interred on the 18th of that month, in the church-yard of Chelsea, in the same vault with his lady, his funeral being attended by many persons of distinction, and several fellows of the Royal society. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr Zachary Pearce, lord-bishop of Bangor, according to the appointment of the deceased. A handsome monument was erected to his memory in Chelsea church-yard.

The person of Sir Hans Sloane was tall and graceful; his behaviour free, open, and engaging; and his conversation cheerful, obliging, and communicative. He was easy of access to strangers, and always ready to admit the curious to a sight of his museum. His table was hospitable; and he appropriated one day in the week to persons distinguished by their learning, and particularly those of the Royal society. He was extremely temperate both in eating and drinking. His custom was to rise very early in the morning; and, from his first getting up, he was constantly fit to have gone abroad, though for some of his last years he stirred not out of his own house. The study of nature and the improvement of knowledge were the employment and pleasure of his life, and to the exercise of his high intellectual qualities are we indebted for the first establishment of the British museum. Having, with great labour and expense, during the course of his long life, collected a rich cabinet of medals, objects of natural history, productions of art, antiquities, and an extensive library of manuscripts and printed books, he bequeathed the whole to the public, on condition that £20,000 should be paid to his executors. Included in this collection were gold and silver coins, which, considered only as bullion, were worth upwards of £7000. The gems and precious stones of every kind, both in their natural state, and as the jeweller has manufactured them; the numerous vessels of jasper, agate, onyx, cornelian, sardonyx, &c.; the curious cameos; the vast stores of the various productions of nature, and the most extensive library extant of physic and natural history, consisting of

50,000 volumes, of which 347 are drawings, or books illuminated, 3,516 manuscripts, he declares solemnly in his will, he believes to be worth more than four times what he expected to be paid to his family for them. Government fulfilled the terms of his legacy; and, in 1753, an act of parliament was passed for the purchase of Sir Hans Sloane's museum, together with the Harleian collection of manuscripts, and for procuring one general repository, for the better reception and more convenient use of the collections, and of the Cottonian library, and additions thereto. The museum of Sir Hans Sloane was accordingly removed from Chelsea to Bloomsbury, and thus commenced the formation of the British museum, to which national collection the most valuable additions have, from time to time, up to the present period, constantly been making.

Thomas Carte.

BORN A. D. 1686.-died a. d. 1754.

THOMAS CARTE, the son of a nonjuring clergyman of some antiquarian fame, was born at Clifton in Warwickshire, of which place his father was then vicar. He was admitted of University college, Oxford, in 1698; but appears to have afterwards transferred himself to Cambridge, where he took the degree of M. A. in 1706. Having been appointed reader in the Abbey church at Bath, he preached a sermon on the 30th January, 1714, which drew him into a controversy with Dr Chandler, and led to his first publication, entitled 'The Irish massacre set in a true light,' which is inserted in Lord Somers's tracts.

Upon the accession of George I. Carte declined taking the necessary oaths to the government, and was suspended in consequence from clerical functions; he now assumed a lay habit, but used to perform divine service in his own family every Sunday, duly arrayed in gown and cassock. On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, Carte appears to have incurred the suspicions of government, as warrants were issued for his apprehension. He had the good fortune, however, to escape the vigilance of his pursuers. He had been for some time secretary to Bishop Atterbury, and was involved in the charge of high treason brought against that prelate; but he had again the good fortune to escape pursuit, and get himself conveyed to France, where he remained several years.

He returned to England about the year 1729, Queen Caroline having interceded for him, on learning that his habits were strictly those of a student. He had employed his exile in France in preparing an edition of Thuanus, which he proposed to publish in English. His diligence and erudition had enabled him to collect some very valuable materials for such an undertaking; but Dr Mead prevailed on him to part with them for a valuable consideration, and having placed them in Mr Buckley's hands, they were employed in the splendid edition of Thuanus completed in 1733, in seven volumes folio. A few years after his return to England, Carte published The history of the life of James, Duke of Ormonde,' in three volumes folio. Of this work Lord Orrery, in a letter to Carte from Dublin, writes in the following terms:

"Your

history is in great esteem here. All sides seem to like it. The dean of St Patrick's, (Swift) honours you with his approbation."

Carte long contemplated writing a history of England. Rapin's work was already before the public, but its principles were not such as Carte and others of his way of thinking on certain points could approve of. It appeared to him that the cause of truth required that another his torian should narrate the progress of public events in England, and he undertook the task himself. He received considerable encouragement from the public generally, and from several of the public companies in the metropolis, and also from the universities. Under such auspices he set to work, and in 1747 the first volume of the projected history appeared. A note in this volume nearly proved fatal to the undertaking. Speaking of the popular superstition of the royal touch as a cure for scrofula, the historian had the imprudence to relate that one Christopher Lovel had been cured at Avignon by the touch of the exiled king. This indiscretion lost him many patrons, but he proceeded with the work, and in 1750 brought out a second volume. The third was published in 1752; the fourth, which Carte did not live to complete, in 1755. It was his design to have brought down the work to the Restoration, but it only reaches to 1654. Carte died in 1754. His papers were purchased by the university of Oxford; Macpherson appears to have had the use of them in his history. Carte was the author of several pieces besides his great historical work. His two brothers, Samuel and John, were also men of considerable erudition and parts.

Richard Mead, M.D.

BORN A. D. 1673.—died a. d. 1754.

RICHARD MEAD, M.D., a celebrated physician, born 11th August, 1673, at Stepney near London, was the son of Mr Matthew Mead, an eminent presbyterian divine, afterwards ejected for nonconformity. His early education was conducted at home, and at the college of Eton. His father having fled to Holland to avoid the persecutions of 1683, he soon followed, and in 1689 he entered the university of Utrecht, where he studied under the celebrated Grævius. Having fixed upon the profession of medicine he went to Leyden, at that time one of the most flourishing of the continental universities. He attended there the lectures of Herman on botany, and those of Dr Pitcairne on the practice of medicine. After travelling in Italy he graduated in medicine at the university of Padua, and returning home in 1696, commenced the practice of his profession in Stepney. In 1703 he went to London, having been appointed physician to St Thomas's hospital, and being chosen by the college of surgeons as their lecturer on anatomy. His Paduan degree not being a qualification for admission into the college of physicians, he received in 1707 a diploma from the university of Oxford, and by the interest of Dr Radcliffe was admitted a fellow of the London college in 1716. Along with the court physicians, he was called in consultation during the last illness of Queen Anne, and, more decided in his views than the rest, declared that her life was in the utmost danger. Among the honours he had hitherto received may be

mentioned that of being admitted a fellow of the Royal society, on account of his essay on Poisons, and an analysis of the researches of Bononio On the Cutaneous Worms which generate the Itch.' In 1721 he was employed by the prince of Wales to make experiments on the inoculation of the small-pox. This he had long before been a supporter of, and the success of the plan was proved at this time by his experiments upon some condemned criminals who submitted to them as a ransom for their lives. He was also consulted respecting the contagious nature of the plague, at that time a subject of more than usual interest, which he discussed in his work on 'Pestilential Contagion, and the Means to be used to prevent it.' In 1727 he was appointed physician to the king. His reputation and practice now increased rapidly, and was in no degree inferior to that of Dr Radcliffe whom he succeeded. In 1744 the college of physicians offered him the highest honour in their power to bestow, the office of president, which his desire of retirement, arising from the infirmities of age, obliged him to decline. Next year he was appointed an honorary fellow of the Edinburgh college of physicians. He died on the 16th of February, 1754, in the 81st year of his age. A monument to his memory stands in the north aisle of Westminster abbey, executed in marble by Roubilliac.

In the elevated situation to which Dr Mead rose, few medical men have appeared who claim so large a portion of our respect. Nothing is known of his character which would not have adorned any station; and it is fortunate that such individuals are sometimes found to occupy the station to which they are so justly entitled. He was a patron of the arts and of learning. His library, containing 10,000 volumes, with many valuable MSS., his paintings, and other works of art of high value, were not selfishly appropriated to his sole use, but were open to all. Among his friends were Pope, Halley, and Newton; and the most learned of the continental physicians were proud to be reckoned among his correspondents. He was honoured by the notice of the kings of Naples and France, the former of whom sent him the great work on the antiquities of Herculaneum, and requested in return a copy of his treatises, inviting him also to his palace. The author of the Biographia Medica' says of him," He was a very generous patron of learning, and learned men in all sciences and in every country; by the peculiar magnificence of his disposition, making the private gains of his profession answer the end of a princely fortune, and valuing them only as they enabled him to become more extensively useful, and thereby to satisfy that greatness of mind, which will transmit his name to posterity with a lustre not inferior to that which attends the most distinguished characters of antiquity." He was equally remarkable for liberality of sentiment, and when a kindness was to be done, a difference in political opinions had not the slightest influence upon his exertions. His friendship for Garth, Arbuthnot, and Freind, was a remarkable instance of this. To the latter, when in difficulties, he was unbounded in his attentions. He visited him when imprisoned in the Tower, used every exertion to obtain his liberation, and having attended his patients, presented him with the sum of money thus acquired. Except on one occasion he never took a fee from a clergyman, and in that instance the reason assigned was, you have been pleased, contrary to what I have met with in any other gentleman of your profession, to prescribe to me,

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rather than to follow my prescription, when you committed the care of your recovery to my skill and trust." The works of Dr Mead have been several times published. The last edition appeared in London, 1772, with a mezzotinto engraving of the author. They consist of an 'Essay on Poisons,'—' Of the Influence of the Sun and Moon upon Human Bodies,'-'A Discourse on the Plague,'-' Treatises on the Measles and Small-pox,'-'On a Method of extracting the Foul Air out of Ships, A series of Medical Precepts and Cautions,'—An attempt to show of what nature those diseases are which are mentioned in scripture, entitled, Medica Sacra,'-An elegant 'Harveian Oration,'—and a few other smaller pieces. In these there is much learning, and much useful information, especially in the Medical Precepts.' Of course they exhibit many of the erroneous notions which prevailed in his day, but in many cases we see his powerful mind rising superior to the prejudices of his education.

Edward Cave.

BORN A. D. 1691.—
-DIED a. D. 1754.

EDWARD CAVE, the enterprising printer, to whom we owe the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' with its varied fund of information and talent, was born at Newton in Warwickshire, on the 29th of February, 1691. His father, the youngest son of Mr Edward Cave of Cave's in the Hole,' was a poor descendant of a respectable family, and compelled to earn his livelihood as a shoemaker in Rugby. Under the Rev. Mr Holyock, the school of Rugby, to which young Cave was entitled to admission on the foundation, had acquired some celebrity, and he found himself gratuitously educated among the sons of gentlemen of considerable rank, while his good qualities gained the esteem of his preceptor The former of these advantages, however, was probably the means of destroying the other. His literary powers are said to have attracted the envy of his more illustrious companions, and by one means or other he became the marked individual, on whom the burden of every piece of devilry committed in the neighbourhood of the school could be conveniently thrown. His faults were brought to a climax by the loss of a favourite cock belonging to the schoolmaster's wife, the crime of stealing or murdering which was naturally fixed on him, until it could be proved against some other,—a circumstance which never happened. From that period, his days at school became unhappy, and relinquishing the idea of a literary education, he accepted a situation as assistant to a collector of excise. Here again he was subject to female annoyance, and was obliged to relinquish his situation, disgusted by the drudgery imposed on him by the collector's wife. His next attempt to acquire a livelihood was in the employment of a timber merchant; but this situation he left before he had commenced a permanent engagement, and he afterwards entered a profession more suitable to his taste and abilities, by binding himself to a printer of the name of Collins, who had acquired some reputation in his profession, and was a deputyalderman. Here he was, for a third time, subjected to annoyance from the more unamiable part of the feminine disposition which seemed to