: 66 produced. As to his manner of life and the general character of his temper and disposition, Mr Conduitt, who married his niece, and knew him well, gives us the following, among other details :—" He always lived in a very handsome generous manner, though without ostentation or vanity; always hospitable, and upon proper occasions gave splendid entertainments. He was generous and charitable without bounds; he used to say, that they who gave away nothing till they died, never gave. I believe no man of his circumstances ever gave away so much during his lifetime in alms, in encouraging ingenuity and learning, and to his relations, nor upon all occasions showed a greater contempt of his own money, or a more scrupulous frugality of that which belonged to the public, or to any society he was intrusted for. He refused pensions and additional employments that were offered him. He had such a meekness and sweetness of temper, that a melancholy story would often draw tears from him." The writer then, after informing us that he was very temperate, although he never subjected himself to any regimen in his diet, proceeds-" He was of a middle stature, and plump in his latter years; he had a very lively and piercing eye, a comely and gracious aspect, and a fine head of hair, as white as silver, without any baldness; and, when his peruke was off, was a venerable sight. And to his last illness, he had the bloom and colour of a young man, and never wore spectacles, nor lost more than one tooth till the day of his death. He ate little flesh, and lived chiefly upon broth, vegetables, and fruit, of which he always ate very heartily."5 ... The only other work which he gave to the public after this, was his 'Chronology.' He had put a sketch of this work into the hands of the queen some years before, and had afterwards permitted her majesty to communicate the manuscript to the Abbé Conti, on the express condition that it should not be shown. Conti, however, having some time after gone to Paris, carried the papers thither with him, and in violation of his promise, thought proper to send them to the press. The book appeared accordingly in 1718, accompanied by a commentary by Freret, in which that writer attempted to refute the text which he had thus undertaken to illustrate. This publication, and the circumstances attending it, gave great irritation to Newton; and at last, in order to set himself right with the world, he determined, advanced as his age now was, to undertake the task of preparing the original work for the press. It was nearly finished when he died, and was published the year after his decease. In the estimation of some, Newton has in this, his latest production, done no less a service to chronology and history, than that which he had rendered to the science of the material universe by the previous exertions of his comprehensive and penetrating intellect.6 The circumstances of the death of the illustrious philosopher we shall relate in the words of Mr Conduitt. He had, for the sake of his health, taken lodgings in Orbell's buildings, Kensington, from which, however, 5 Turnor's Collections. A very curious and learned note upon the principle of the Newtonian System of Chronology,' may be found in M. Biot's original Life of Newton, in the Biographie Universelle,' from the pen of a friend, which has been omitted in the translation of that memoir, published in the Library of Useful Knowledge.' he was in the habit of driving frequently to town:-" On Tuesday the last day of February, 1726-7," says Mr Conduitt, "he came to town in order to go to a meeting of the Royal society. The next day I was with him, and thought I had not seen him better of many years, and he was sensible of it himself, and told me, smiling, that he had slept the Sunday before from eleven at night to eight in the morning without waking; but his great fatigue in going to the Society, and making and receiving visits, brought his old complaint violently upon him. He returned to Kensington on the Saturday following. As soon as I heard of his illness I carried Dr Mead and Mr Chesselden to him, who immediately said it was the stone in the bladder, and gave no hopes of his recovery. The stone was probably moved from the place where it lay quiet, by the great motion and fatigue of his last journey to London, from which time he had violent fits of pain, with very short intermissions; and though the drops of sweat ran down from his face with anguish, he never complained, or cried out, or showed the least signs of peevishness or impatience, and, during the short intervals from that violent torture, would smile and talk with his usual cheerfulness. On Wednesday the 15th of March he seemed a little better, and we conceived some hopes of his recovery, but without grounds. On Saturday morning the 18th he read the newspapers, and held a pretty long discourse with Dr Mead, and had all his senses perfect; but that evening at six, and all Sunday, he was insensible, and died on Monday the 20th of March, between one and two o'clock in the morning. He seemed to have stamina vitæ, (except the accidental disorder of the stone,) to have carried him to a much longer age. To the last he had all his senses and faculties, strong, vigorous, and lively, and he continued writing and studying many hours every day to the time of his last illness." Newton, at the time of his death, was in his eighty-fifth year. His body, after lying in state in the Jerusalem-chamber, was conveyed to its place of interment in Westminster abbey, by a numerous and splendid procession, six peers holding up the pall. A monument was some time after placed over his remains by the inheritors of his property. He died worth about £32,000, besides the small estate which he had received from his father. The money was divided between four nephews and four nieces, the descendants of his mother by her second husband. Some time before his death also he had given a property which he had purchased at Kensington, to his grand-niece, Miss: Conduitt, who lived with him for nearly twenty years. This lady, who was celebrated for her wit and beauty, afterwards married Lord Viscount Lymington, and was the grandmother of the present earl of Portsmouth. Through her Newton's papers came into the possession of the Portsmouth family, where they still remain. The landed property which Sir Isaac derived from his father went to his heir of the whole blood, a John Newton, whose great-grandfather was Sir Isaac's uncle. The author of the poem of 'Wensley-Dale', already referred to, says that this person, whom he incorrectly calls Robert, was the son of a John Newton, who had been originally a carpenter, afterwards became gamekeeper to Sir Isaac, and died at the age of sixty, in 1725. His son, Sir Isaac's heir, according to this authority, was a dissolute fellow, and, being drunk, fell down with a tobacco pipe in his mouth, which stuck in his throat, and he died at thirty, in 1737. In Whittaker's History of Craven,' some anecdotes may be found of a Reverend Benjamin Smith, a nephew of Newton's, who seems to have been a very eccentric and rather a worthless character. He died in 1776. 6 Two works of Newton's were published some time after his death, the first entitled, 'Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse,' the other, An Historical Account of two notable corruptions of the Scriptures.' There is also remaining among his papers, a ‘Lexicon Propheticum,' which has never been printed. His manuscripts amount in all to about four thousand sheets in folio, or eight reams of paper, besides many bound volumes. They relate principally to chronology and history, and a great many of them are copies repeatedly transcribed. A catalogue of these manuscripts may be found in the Edinburgh Eneyclopedia,3 and in various other publications. The famous tree in the orchard at Woolsthorpe-which is said to have suggested the idea of gravitation—was blown down a few years ago; but the house in which the philosopher spent his early years still stands. "It is built of stone, as is the way of the country thereabouts," says Dr Stukeley, who saw it above a century ago, "and a reasonable good one. They led me up stairs, and showed me Sir Isaac's study, where I suppose he studied when in the country, in his younger days, as perhaps when he visited his mother from the university. I observed the shelves were of his own making, being pieces of deal boxes, which probably he sent his books and clothes down in upon these occasions." This house was repaired in 1798, when a marble tablet was put up in one of the apartments, having Pope's celebrated couplet inscribed on it: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; John Freind, M. D. BORN A. D. 1675.-died A. D. 1728. JOHN FREIND was the son of the rector of Croton in Northamptonshire, at which place he was born in 1675. He studied at Westminster school under the well-known Dr Busby; after which he was sent, in 1690, to Christ-church, Oxford. He was there much distinguished for his classical erudition, and at the age of twenty, produced, in concert with another student, an edition of the oration of Æschinus against Ctesiphon, and of that of Demosthenes, entitled, De Coronâ,' with a Latin translation and commentary. He also revised the Delphine edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses, reprinted at Oxford in the same year. He now commenced the study of medicine, and appeared before the public in a letter to Sir Hans Sloane on hydrocephalus, in 1699; and afterwards in 1701, in a letter on the history of a rare spasmodic affection. These may be found in the Philosophical transactions. His next work was on the subject of the Fluxus muliebris menstruus,' and contained an examination of the several medical theories of the day, espe See Article NEWTON. cially the mechanical ones of Borelli, Baglivi, Pitcairn, and Keill. This work has been admired for the elegance of its style, but the opinions are now antiquated. In 1704 he was appointed to the chair of chemistry in Oxford; and the year after he attended the army under Lord Peterborough in the Spanish expedition. He remained physician to the army for two years, after which he travelled in Italy, and visited the celebrated physicians Baglivi and Lancisi. He returned home in 1707, and published an account of the Spanish expedition. The same year he became doctor in medicine. In 1709 his ، Prelectiones Chemicae appeared, dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton. They were attacked by the German philosophers, and defended by Dr Freind in an appendix to the second edition. In 1711 he was elected a fellow of the Royal society, and travelled into Flanders as physician to the duke of Ormond. He returned to London and settled in practice there, becoming a fellow of the college of physicians in 1716. He soon got involved in a dispute with Dr Woodward, professor of medicine in Gresham-college, occasioned by a treatise on fevers which he published in that year. In 1717 he read the Gulstonian lecture, and three years after delivered the Harveian oration. In 1722 he became member of parliament for Launceston in Cornwall, and is said to have spoken frequently in the house, and to have exerted himself with considerable energy on several occasions. Being suspected of connexion with Bishop Atterbury, he was committed to the Tower in March, 1722. During his imprison ment he is believed to have made considerable preparations for his great work on the history of medicine, addressed to Dr Mead. This was published in the years 1725 and 1726. He remained but a short time in confinement, and on being liberated became physician to the prince of Wales. When the prince came to the throne, Freind became physician to the queen, but enjoyed this honour only a short time. He died on the 26th of June, 1728, of a fever, in the fifty-second year of his age. He was buried at Hitcham in Buckinghamshire, and a monument was erected to his memory in Westminster-abbey. His works, especially the History of Medicine,' are still deservedly appreciated. His character is described in the Harveian oration of Sir Edward Wilmot in 1735; where he is called a deep philosopher, a learned physician and elegant writer, and an ornament to society; and described as very honest and humane, ever desirous of doing good. His friendship with Dr Mead is well-known. John Woodward. BORN A. D. 1665.—died A. D. 1728. JOHN WOODWARD, a native of Derbyshire, was born on the 1st of May, 1665. After having received the rudiments of education at a country school, he was apprenticed to a linen-draper, whom, however, he soon quitted, and shortly after, became acquainted with Dr Peter Barwick, a physician, "who finding him," says Ward, his biographer, “ of a very promising genius, took him under his tuition in his own family.” After having made considerable progress in philosophy, physic, and anatomy, he was invited to visit Sir Ralph Dutton, Dr Bar wick's son-in-law, at Sherborne in Gloucestershire, where his mineralogical observations and collections "led him to conclude," says the authority before cited, "that the great mixture, which he everywhere found, both of native and extraneous fossils, must result from some general cause; and, at length, convinced him of the universality of the Mosaic deluge." In January, 1692, he was chosen professor of physic in Gresham college, on the recommendation particularly of Dr Barwick, who certified that Woodward "had made the greatest advance, not only in physic, anatomy, botany, and other parts of natural philosophy, but likewise in history, geography, mathematics, philology, and all other useful learning, of any man he ever knew of his age.' In 1693 he was chosen a fellow of the royal society. In 1695 he obtained his degree of M. D. by mandate from Archbishop Tenison; and, during the same year, published a work, entitled, 'An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, especially in Minerals, as also of the Sea, Rivers, and Springs; with an account of the Universal Deluge, and of the Effects it had upon the Earth.' In 1696 he published a pamphlet, entitled, Brief Instructions for making Observations in all parts of the World, as also for Collecting, Preserving, and sending over Natural Things,' &c. In 1698 he was admitted a licentiate, and in 1792, elected a fellow of the royal college of physicians. In 1704, a Latin translation of his essay having been printed at Zurich, he became engaged in a controversy with Cuper and Leibnitz, and, some years afterwards, with Camerarius, who closed the dispute with a very handsome acknowledgment of Woodward's abilities. In 1718 he published a work, entitled, 'The State of Physic and Diseases, with an Inquiry into the Causes of the late increase of them; but more particularly of the Small-pox: with some considerations upon the New Practice of Purging in that Disease,' &c. This practice had been supported by Drs Mead and Freind, especially by the latter, in his 'Commentary on Fevers.' Woodward endeavoured to show the advantage of emetics; but was defeated in the controversy. 6 During the latter part of his life, which terminated in April, 1728, he devoted the chief portion of his time to "his darling fossils and shells." His collection was purchased by the university of Cambridge, to which he bequeathed £150 per annum for the foundation of a mineralogical lectureship, which appears to have been first held by Dr Conyers Middleton. Shortly after his death appeared A Catalogue of Fossils in the collection of John Woodward, M.D.,' and an octavo edition from his pen, entitled, Fossils of all Kinds digested into a Method suitable to their Mutual Relations and Affinity.' Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of some archæological tracts, and a few contributions to the Philosophical transactions. Dr Woodward appears to have been a man of considerable abilities, and great benevolence. One of his biographers states, that "as he was a genius sui generis, so his method of reasoning was often grounded upon a way of reasoning peculiar to himself." As a geologist, he is at least entitled to praise, for having made actual observations the basis of his theories. |