per aliquot annos literis quibus ipse haud leviter imbutus fuerat, summa cum laude publicè docebat. Londinum profectus diligentissimè medicinam excolluit, adeo ut oculos principum tum temporis medicorum, inter quos, Vir ille egregius Georgius Baker præcipue numerandus est, in se converterit. Academiam reversus Artem Medendi per quadraginta annos ita factitavit, Mortuus apud omnes desiderium sui reliquit ; ingenio sagacissimus, moribus admodum suavis; Vitam utilissimam et recordatu dulcissimam, xxiii die Decembris AD MDCCCXXIX. Artis Chemicæ Prælector A.D. MDCCXCIV He was the author of An Introductory Lecture to a Course of Chemistry. 8vo. Oxford. 1797. Cases of Pulmonary Consumption treated with Uva Ursi; to which are added some Practical Remarks. 8vo. Oxford. 1805. MATTHEW BAILLIE, M.D., was born on the 27th October, 1761, at the manse of Shotts, in Lanarkshire. He was the son of the Rev. James Baillie, D.D. (subsequently professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, a divine of excellent understanding, of polished and dignified manners, and of a highly cultivated mind), by his wife Dorothea, sister of the celebrated anatomists, William and John Hunter. He received his early education at the grammar-school at Hamilton, the master of which, Mr. Whale, was a man of quick parts, of various knowledge, and with a considerable turn for humour. He was an excellent Latin scholar, but not very thoroughly acquainted with Greek, although he had enough of that language for the creditable teaching of the school. Before Dr. Baillie had completed his thirteenth year he was sent to the college of Glasgow, where he passed five sessions in the study of classics, mathematics, and general philosophy. Having obtained one of the Scotch exhibitions at Balliol college, Oxford, he proceeded thither in 1779, and thenceforward spent his vacations in London, under the roof of his uncle, Dr. William Hunter. He graduated A.B. 14th January, 1783; A.M. 14th June, 1786; M.B. 15th July, 1786; M.D. 7th July, 1789. In the intervals of his residence. at Oxford he applied himself diligently to the study of anatomy in London, was engaged in making preparations for Dr. Hunter's lectures, in conducting demonstrations, and superintending the dissections of the students. On the death of Dr. Hunter, in 1783, Baillie inherited a sum of 5,000l. in money, the house and premises in Great Windmill-street until the end of thirty years from Dr. Hunter's death, and the use of the museum for the same period; as also a small estate in Scotland, the latter of which he thought fit to hand over to the celebrated John Hunter, as having, in his opinion, the best right to it. He succeeded in addition to a moiety of the lectures, Mr. Cruikshank being his colleague, and gave his first course in the session of 1784-5. As a teacher he succeeded in the highest degree; his demonstrations were remarkable for their clearness and precision; abstruse and difficult points under his hand became most simple and intelligible; he possessed a perfect conception of his subject, and imparted it with the utmost plainness and perspicuity to his hearers. He continued to lecture until 1799. Dr. Baillie's practice as a physician may be dated from the summer of 1786, when he took his first degree in physic; and on the 23rd February, 1787, he was elected physician to St. George's hospital. He was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 30th September, 1789; and a Fellow 30th September, 1790. He delivered the Gulstonian lectures in 1794; the Croonian lectures in 1796, 1797, 1798; and the Harveian oration in 1798. He was Censor in 1791, 1796; and was named an Elect 27th July, 1809. On the 13th November, 1809, he was elected an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Dr. Baillie's relationship to the Hunters, and his marriage, in 1791, to Sophia, daughter of Dr. Denman, tended in some degree to advance him as a practitioner. The temporary secession from practice of Dr. David Pitcairn, the early and intimate friend of Dr. Baillie, in 1798, to whom that estimable physician recommended his patients during his absence at Lisbon, brought a large accession of business to Dr. Baillie, whilst the death of Dr. Warren contributed in no slight degree to extend his practice. His private engagements then increased so rapidly that, in 1799, he resigned his office at St. George's hospital, gave up his anatomical lectures, and, removing to Grosvenor-street, devoted himself entirely to practice. His professional receipts were very large, and are said for many successive years to have reached ten thousand pounds. In 1810 Dr. Baillie was called into consultation, with Sir Henry Halford, on the princess Amelia, and in the course of his attendance was appointed physician extraordinary to George the Third; and, in 1814, physician in ordinary to the princess Charlotte. He attended the king in his last illness, and was offered a baronetcy, an honour which he begged permission to decline. During many years Dr. Baillie was in the habit of devoting sixteen hours of each day to business. Under such exertions, his health, as might have been expected, gave way, and compelled him at length to lessen his fatigues. He withdrew from all but consultation practice, and retired during the summer months to an estate he had purchased in Gloucestershire. In 1823 he was attacked with inflammation of the mucous membrane of the trachea, to relieve which he visited Tunbridge Wells, but without experiencing much relief. He therefore retired to his seat, Duntisbourne-house, near Cirencester, where he expired on the 23rd September, 1823, aged sixty-two. He was interred in Duntisbourne church, and over the vault is a tablet thus inscribed : Sacred to the memory of who terminated his useful and honourable life Sophia, his beloved wife, who died August 5th, 1845, aged 74. But the professional friends of Dr. Baillie erected a monument to his memory in Westminster abbey at an expense of eight hundred guineas. It consists of a fine bust by Chantry, and below bears on the pedestal the following inscription : Matthæo Baillie, M.D., Coll: Reg: Medic: Lond: et Edin: Socio, Prælectori anatomico apud Londinium insigni; complures ejusdem ætatis Decessit nono kal Octob. A.S. MDCCCXXIII æt: LXII, Upon intelligence of the death of Dr. Baillie being received by the College of Physicians, the following record was directed to be inserted in the Annals* : "That our posterity may know the extent of our obligation to the benefactor whose death we all deplore, be it remembered that Dr. Baillie gave the whole of his 30th September, 1823. most valuable collection of anatomical preparations to the College, and six hundred pounds for the preservation of the same; and this, too, after the example of the illustrious Harvey, in his lifetime. His contemporaries need not an enumeration of his many virtues to account for their respectful attachment to him whilst he lived, or to justify the profound grief which they feel at his death; but to the rising generation of physicians it may be useful to hold up for an example, his remarkable simplicity of heart, his strict and clear integrity, his generosity, and that religious principle by which his conduct seemed always to be governed, as well calculated to secure to them the respect and goodwill of their colleagues and the profession at large, and the high estimation and confidence of the public." By his will Dr. Baillie bequeathed to the College of Physicians a legacy of 300l. together with all his medical, surgical, and anatomical books, and the copper-plates of his illustrations of morbid anatomy; and, in case of his son dying without legitimate issue, a sum of 4,000l.* His effects were sworn under 80,000l., and his will was * 1823, December 22. It was resolved that the following extracts from the late Dr. Baillie's will, be inserted in the Book of Annals of the College: "I give to the President and Fellows for the time being of the Royal College of Physicians in London, for the use of the said College, all the copper-plates belonging to my work upon morbid anatomy; and all my medical, chemical, and anatomical books whatsoever. I also give to the same President and Fellows, for the use of the said College, the sum of 3001., to be paid out of my personal estate; and I do direct that the interest or annual produce of the said 3001. be applied to keeping the said medical, chemical, and anatomical books in proper preservation and in augmenting the library of the said College." A codicil dated 2nd November, 1822, runs thus: "In case my son, William Hunter Baillie, should die unmarried, or a widower, or married without legitimate children, then I desire that 4,000l. sterling be paid out of my personal property, to the President and Fellows for the time being of the Royal College of Physicians in London, in order to form a permanent fund, the interest of which may be expended for purposes that may be conducive to the advantage of the said College, or for the promotion of medical science at large in Great Britain." |