NEW EDITION, REVISED UNDER THE CARE OF THE PUBLISHERS.

WITH A SUPPLEMENTAL VOLUME,

CONTINUING THE BIOGRAPHIES TO THE PRESENT TIME.

BY THE REV. THOS. THOMSON,

AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND FOR THE USE OF SCHOOL," KTC., etc.

WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS.

VOL. V.

ABERCROMBIE-WOOD.

BLACKIE AND SON:

GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.

MDCCCLV.

PREFACE

TO THE

FIFTH, OR SUPPLEMENTAL VOLUME.

WHILE a national Biography is so fitted to arrest the general attention, and endear itself to the patriotic feelings of those people whose great and good men it commemorates, a national SCOTTISH Biography possesses such advantages of this nature, as must always impart to it an especial interest. For it exhibits a country the least populous in Europe, and originally the most remote and neglected,. producing, in spite of these disadvantages, such a multitude of leading minds in every department of thought and action, as have advanced it into the very foremost rank of nations, and given it an imperishable name in history. The men by whom such a change has been achieved mist have left a memorial of no ordinary importance.

Something more, however, than a merely. intellectual and historical interest belongs, in a peculiar degree, to Scottish Biography. Those men of whom it is the record, were in most instances of humble origin and scanty resources-men who were obliged not only skilfully to use, but in many cases absolutely to create the means by which they were borne onward-and who yet, by their talents, their energy, and their moral worth, won their way to eminence in every department of human excellence. While patriotism is ennobled and purified by the study of such examples, how persuasive a lesson they contain for the ingenuous youths by whom the manhood of Scotland in a few years will be represented! It is by such reading that they can best be taught by the example of precursors that they will be best animated and directed. In these instances they have full proof, that however adverse their own circumstances are, everything may be compelled to give way to indomitable resolution, unwearing industry, and steady upright integrity.

such

A full national Biography for Scotland, from the earliest period till 1834, was accomplished by the work, the publication of which was completed during that year, under the title of "LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED SCOTSMEN," of which the first four volumes of the present is a re issue. But since the period of its first publication, circumstances have occurred, through which a large addition to the original collection was urgently demanded. The close of the last, and the earlier

part of the present century, have constituted an epoch in the history of the Scottish mind, such as our country, prolific though it has been of eminent men, has never previously enjoyed. But of these illustrious Scotsmen of our own day, the greater part have died. since the year 1834, while they were so numerous as well as distinguished, that nothing less than an entire volume seemed necessary for their memorial. If in this estimate it should be alleged that a mistake has been made-that the worth which our own eyes have beheld, and over which the grave has so recently closed, has in some instances been rated higher than a future time, and the increasing .experience of society will ratify-still we trust, it is a mistake which the succeetling generation will be easily disposed to pardon. Fn.this additional lube they will read the record of men whom their fathers delighted to honour, and by whom, in no small degree, their own characters have been moulded. In such an extended mode, also, of writing a national Biography, a mass of information is bequeathed to posterity, in which the excess can be easily reduced to those dimensions which it ought to occupy in future history. This is certainly a more venial error than that of a too compendious narrative, the defects or omissions of which, in the course of.a few years, it might be difficult, or even impossible to rectify

The author of this additional volume of the "LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED ScotsMEN" has, only to add, that the following memoirs owe nothing more to him than the care of editorial revision: viz., those of Joanna Baillie, Rev. Dr. Robert Balfour, James Bell, John Burns, M.D., David Dale, Colonel John Fordyce, George Gardner, Charles Mackintosh, James Montgomery, and Thomas Thomson, M.D., F.R.S.

These were derived from sources of information to which he either had no ready access, or were connected with subjects to which he thought he could not render such ample justice as they merited. For the authorship of the rest of the volume, whatever may be its merits or defects, he claims the entire responsibility.

THOMAS THOMSON.

A

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY

OF

EMINENT SCOTSMEN.

SUPPLEMENT AND CONTINUATION TO 1855.

A

ABERCROMBLE, JOHN, M.D., the subject of this brief memoir, was one of the latest of that metfical school of which Scotland is so justly proud. He was born in Aberdeen, on the 11th of October, 1781, and was son of the Rev. Mr. Abercrombie, who for many years was one of the ministers of that town, and distinguished by his piety and.worth. The excellent training which John enjoyed under such a parent, imparted that high moral and religious tone by which his whole life was subsequently characterized. After a boyhood spent under the paternal roof, and the usual routine a classical education, he was sent, in consequence of his choice of the medical profession, to the university of Edinburgh, at that time distinguished as the best medical school in the empire. Here he applied to his studies with indefatigable diligence, and while his fellow-students marked his progress with admiration, they were not less struck with the moral excellence of his character, and the deep, practical, unobtrusive piety by which, even thus early, his whole life was regulated. It was this confirmed excellence of character, expressed alike in action and conversation, combined with his high professional talents and reputation, that afterwards won for him the confidence of his patients, and imparted to his attentions at the sick. bed a charm that, of itself, was half the cure. When the usual prescribed course of study at the medical classes had expired, Mr. Abercrombie graduated at the university of Edinburgh on the 4th of June, 1803, while only in his twentysecond year, the subject of his thesis being "De Fatuitate Alpina." He then went to London, and after a short period of study at the schools and hospitals of the metropolis, returned to Edinburgh, and was admitted a Fellow of its Royal College of Surgeons on the 12th of November, 1804. On this occasion, his probationary Essay, submitted to the president and council, entitled, “On Paralysis of the Lower Extremities from Diseased Spine," was characterized by such clearness of thought and perspicuity of style, as fully indicated the eminence that awaited him not only in his professional capacity, but also in the ranks of authorship.

Thus prepared for action, Dr. Abercrombie, though still young, and com