The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-01-30 00:00:00

DEATHS. OF ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONS.

THE ROYAL COLLEGE or PHYSICIANS.—There was a grand
display at the college on Monday night; never was so large an
assemblage within its walls. The spacious library was thronged
so as scarcely to leave standing room for one individual more,
the gallery itself being completely filled all round. It was the
first of the evening meetings for the season, and Sir Henry
ford did the 'honours with his usual tact and discrimination. He
arrived, bringing with him his corps of destingues, at a quarter-
past nine,.and watcpresently enthroned in his president's chair,
having
.on his right the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of
Aberdeen, the Bishop of London, -Sir Robert Peel, Sir Chinks
Manners Sutton,
,4ncl. some of the judges, and on his left the
Lord Chancellor, 'Lord Abinger, the Chancellor of the Ex-
cheqner, Chief Justice Thidal, &C. Having waited a fevf minotes
to see that 'all were properly seated and arranged, the learned
president rose and read a paper On the Deatia:sof Illustrious
Persons." He alluded to one which he had formerly read re-
lating to persons of patquily; hie now took the Moderns for his
theme, beginning with Gardinaligolsey. The cardinal died of
dysentery, and was aware of the mortal nature of his complaint:
the circumstauces of his last moments were judiciously selected
from CaYendish—hot forgettin,,,, the beautiful touches of Shak-
speare. The aeaths of Edward the Sixth and of Queen Mary
were then noticed; and the excellent account given of the last
illness of Oliver Cromwell by Dr. Bates was quoted. Charles
11. died of apoplexy; and the medical reader of Sir C. Scarbo-
rough's history of the case and pest mortem examination can,
have no difficulty in explaining the otherwise curious circum-
stances related by bystanders, touching the king's alleged ac-
quiescence in the Romish faith on his death-bed. In meutioning
the death of the second Mary from small-pox, Sir Henry vindi-
cated Radcliffe front the censures of'Burnett. Schomberg once
told this prelate. never to give an opinion on a military subject:
it were well he had never given a medical one. Dryden and
Addison were not forgotten among the illustrious; but we are
compelled to be brief. Swift's last melancholy affliction, wherein
he died "a driveller and a show," was traced by Sir Henry, not
to mental disorder producing bodily disease, as the learned Sir
George Baker argues, but to a disposition to palsy, which af-
fected the Dean even from his youth upwards. In short, it was
corporeal malady that engendered that seem indignatio which
(according to Swift himself, in his memorable epitaph) lacerated
and preyed upon his heart. The remarkable death of George
11., who died suddenly from rupture of the right ventricle of the
heart, was next alluded to; the mental derangement of George
111. was hastily glanceal at ; and, finally, the recent decease of
the Duke of Glouces er was touched on with much delicacy and
discretion. There was no wanton raising of the veil from that
which the physician is honourably bound not to expose; but the
happy moral state, the resignation, and the piety of thp royal
sufferer were feeliugly perurtrayed. In conclusion, the learned
author offered Some remarks on the usefulness of the study of
history to the physician. The paper was loudly applauded, and
seemed to excite much interest among the distinguished visitors.