GREGORY, surnamed the Great, born at Rome, was descended of an illustrious patrician family, and the son of the senator Gordian. He discovered such abilities in the exercise of the senatorial employments, that Justin the younger appointed him prefect of Rome, and Pelasgius II. sent him as nuncio to Constantinople, to demand succours against the Lombards. When he had thoughts of retiring to enjoy a solitary life, he was, in the year 590, elected pope by tire clergy, the senate, and the people of Rome, and succeeded Pelasgius II. Besides his learning and diligence in instrocting the church, both by writing and preaching, he had a happy talent in winning over princes in favour of the temporal as well as spiritual interests of religion. He undertook the conversion of the English, and sent over some monks, under the direction of Augustin their superior, by whom the seeds of Christianity were first planted in this island. His morality with respect to the chastity of churchmen was so rigid, that according to him a man who had ever known a woman ought not to be admitted to the priesthood; and he always caused the candidates for holy orders to be examined upon that point. He likewise exerted himself most vigorously against such as were found guilty of calumny and other vices. But, notwithstanding all this zeal, he flattered the emperor Phocas, whilst the hands of that prince were yet red with the blood of Mauritius and his three children, who had been butchered in his sight. He likewise flattered Bmnehaut, queen of the Franks, whose character was worse than doubtful. He is further accused of having destroyed the monuments of ancient Roman magnificence, that those who visited the eternal city might not attend to the triumphal arches rather than Ao holy things; and burned a multitude of heathen books, including amongst these the History of Livy. He died in 604. Of all the popes, he is the one who left the greatest number of writings. The best edition of his works is that of Paris, 1705, in four vols. folio, published under the auspices of Denis de Sainte-Marthe and Guillaume Bessin of the congregation of St Maur.

Gregory of Nazianzen, in Cappadocia, one of the most ' illustrious ornaments of the Greek church in the fourth ' century, was born in 328, and having studied at Caesarea in Palestine, and also at Alexandria, he accompanied his countryman, St Basil, to Athens. He was chosen Bishop of Constantinople in 379; but finding his election contested by the bishops of Egypt, he voluntarily resigned his dignity into the hands of the general council, which had been assembled at Constantinople, in the year 381, and died about the year 389. His works, consisting of a hundred and fifty discourses or sermons, a hundred and fifty-eight poems or pieces in verse, and two hundred and thirty-five letters, the greater part of them interesting, were collected and printed at Bale in 1550. In the Paris edition of 1609, 1611, in two vols. folio, a Latin version by the Abbé de Belly is printed opposite the Greek text. The Benedictines of the congregation of St Maur commenced a beautiful edition, Greek and Latin, in three vols. folio, of which, however, only one volume was published, Paris, 1788, containing the discourses, with a life of the author compiled from his works.

Gregory, Theodorus, surnamed Thaumalurgus or the Wonder-worker, on account of his alleged miracles, was the scholar of Origen, and was elected Bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, the place of his birth, about the year 240. He assisted at the council of Antioch, in 255, against Paid of Samosata; and died in 270. He had the satisfaction of leaving only seventeen idolaters in his diocese, where there were scarcely as many Christians when he was ordained. There are still extant of his, a congratulatory oration to Origen, a canonical epistle, a paraphrase on Ecclesiastes, and some other compositions, which have been published in the collection entitled <SS ’. Patrum Gregorii Thauma-turgi, Macarii Egyptii, et Basilii Seleuciensis Opera Graeco-Latina, Paris, 1622, in folio.

Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, one of the Fathers of the Church, and author of the Nicene creed, was born in Cappadocia, about the year 331 or 332. He was chosen bishop of Nyssa in 371 or 372, and banished by the Emperor Valens for adhering to the council of Nice. He was nevertheless afterwards employed by the bishops in several important affairs, and died about the year 396. He wrote Commentaries on the Scriptures, Sermons on the Mysteries, Moral Discourses, Dogmatical Treatises, Panegyrics on the Saints, Letters on Church Discipline, and various works. The Bishop of Nyssa yields to none of the fathers either in the solidity of his matter, the fertility and soundness of his views, the force of his reasoning, or the beauty and richness of his style. Of his works there have been a great number of editions, the principal of which are those of Cologne, 1537; Bale, 1567 and 1571; Paris, 1573 and 1603, all in folio; also Paris, 1615 and 1618, in two vols. folio, with a third volume by way of appendix, containing various pieces which had not before appeared.

Gregory of Tours, an illustrious bishop and writer of the sixth century, was descended from a noble family in Auvergne. He was educated by his uncle Saint-Gal, or Gallus, bishop of Clermont; and distinguished himself so much by his learning and virtue, that in 573 he was chosen Bishop of Tours. He afterwards went to Rome to visit the tomb of the apostles, there contracted a friendship with Gregory the Great, and died in 593, at the age of fifty-four. His principal work is his Historia Francorum, or History of the Franks, divided into sixteen books, comprehending a period of 174 years from the establishment of the Franks in Gaul. It is written in Latin, which is not only grammatically barbarous, but without force, without expression, and, if we may be allowed the use of the term, without complexion. Gregory of Tours had read the Fathers, and acquired some knowledge of Roman literature; for he cites Virgil and Sallust, Pliny and Aulus Gellius. But the language, [7:10:766]formerly so masculine and vigorous, had shared the rate of the civilization of which it was the type, and had fallen into a state of extreme debility and decay. Yet it had in it more of degradation than of barbarism. The Gothic tribes had not yet, by an intimate union, renovated the nations who had degenerated under the shattered yoke of the Roman empire. The victors oppressed the vanquished, without being as yet confounded with them.

Gregory, David, the son of the reverend John Gregory, minister of Drumoak, in the county of Aberdeen. He was born about the year 1628, educated by his father for business, and bound as an apprentice to a mercantile house in Holland. But as his love of letters exceeded his desire of money, he relinquished commerce in the year 1655, and upon the death of an elder brother he succeeded to the estate of Kinnardie, about forty miles from Aberdeen, where he resided many years, and had no fewer than thirty-two children born to him by two wives. Three of his sons became eminent for their extensive literature, and were at one time professors of mathematics in the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, and St Andrews.

In the country where he dwelt he was the first person who had a barometer, to the oscillations of which, according to the changes of the weather, he paid great attention, and was once in danger of being tried by the presbytery for witchcraft or conjuration. He was waited upon by a deputation of ministers, who inquired into the truth of certain reports which had come to their ears; but he so far satisfied them as to induce them to waive a prosecution against a man who, by the extensive knowledge he possessed of medicine, was a public blessing to the country.

About the beginning of the eighteenth century he removed to Aberdeen, and during the wars of Queen Anne’s reign, turned his attention to the improvement of artillery, and executed a model of an engine intended to render cannon more destructive. Dr Reid knew a clock-maker who had been employed to make the model of this engine; but as he made many different pieces without knowing their design, or the method of uniting them, he could give no consistent account of the engine. Satisfied with his invention by various experiments, Mr Gregory desired his son to show it to Sir Isaac Newton, but to conceal the name of the inventor; Sir Isaac however was much displeased with it, and declared that the inventor was more entitled to punishment than reward, as it was solely calculated for destruction, and might come to be known to the enemy. That great man urged the necessity of destroying it; and it is probable that Mr Gregory’s son, the Savilian professor, followed his advice, for the model was never found.

When the rebellion broke out in 1715, the old gentleman went a second time to Holland; but when the insurrection had been put down, he returned to Aberdeen, where he died about 1720, in the ninety-third year of his age, leaving behind him a history of his own times, which was never published.

Gregory, James, one of the most eminent mathematicians of the seventeenth century, was a son of the reverend John Gregory, minister of Drumoak, in the county of Aberdeen, and was born at Aberdeen in 1638. His mother was a daughter of Mr David Anderson of Finzaugh, a gentleman who possessed a singular turn for mathematical and mechanical knowledge. Mathematical genius was indeed hereditary in the family of the Andersons, and from them it seems to have been transmitted to their descendants of the name of Gregory. Alexander Anderson, cousin-german of David Gregory above mentioned, was professor of mathematics at Paris in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and published there, Supplementum Apollonii Redivivi, 1612. The mother of James Gregory inherited the genius of her family; and observing in her son, whilst yet a child, a strong propensity to mathematics, she instructed him herself in the elements of that science. He received his education in the languages at the grammarschool of Aberdeen, and went through the usual course of academical studies in the Marischal College.

At the age of twenty-four he published his treatise, entitled Optica Promota, seu abdita Radiorum Reflexorum et Refractorum mysteria, geometrice enucleata; cui subnectitur appendix subtilissimorum Astronomia problematum resolutionem exhibens, London, 1663: a work of great genius, in which he gave the world an invention of his own, one of the most valuable of modern discoveries, namely, the construction of the reflecting telescope. This discovery immediately attracted the attention of mathematicians, both in our own and in foreign countries, all of whom were soon convinced of its great importance to the sciences of optics and astronomy. As the manner of placing the two specula upon the same axis appeared to Sir Isaac Newton to be attended with the disadvantage of losing the central rays of the larger speculum, he proposed an improvement on the instrument, by giving an oblique position to the smaller speculum, and placing the eye-glass in the side of the tube. But it is worth remarking, that the Newtonian construction of the instrument was abandoned for the original or Gregorian, which is now generally employed where the instrument is of a moderate size; though Sir William Herschel preferred the Newtonian form for the construction of those immense telescopes which he so successfully employed in observing the heavens.

The university of Padua being at this time in high repute for mathematical studies, James Gregory went thither soon after the publication of his first work; and, fixing his residence there for some years, he published, in 1667, Vera Circuli et Hyperboles Quadratura, in which he propounded another discovery of his own, the invention of an infinitely converging series for the areas of the circle and hyperbole. To this treatise, when republished in 1668, he added a new work, entitled Geometria Pars Universalis, inserviens quantitatum curvarum transmutationi et mensura, in which he is allowed to have shown, for the first time, a method for the transmutation of curves. These works engaged the notice, and procured the author the correspondence, of the greatest mathematicians of the age, Newton, Huygens, Halley, and Wallis; and as he was soon afterwards chosen a fellow of the Royal Society of London, he contributed to enrich the Philosophical Transactionsbymanyexcellent papers. Through thischan-nel, in particular, he carried on a dispute with Huygens, on the occasion of his treatise on the Quadrature of the Circle and Hyperbole, to which that able mathematician had started some objections. It is unnecessary to enter into the particulars of this controversy; but, in the opinion of Leibnitz, who allows Mr Gregory the highest merit for his genius and discoveries, Huygens pointed out considerable deficiencies in the treatise above mentioned, and showed a much simpler method of attaining the end proposed.

In 1688 he published at London another work, entitled Exercitationes Geometrica, which contributed still further to extend his reputation. About this time he was elected professor of mathematics in the university of St Andrews; an ofiice which he held for six years. During his residence there, he married (in 1669) Mary, the daughter of George Jameson, the celebrated painter, whom Mr Walpole has termed the Vandyke of Scotland, and who was a fellow disciple of that great artist in the school of Rubens at Antwerp. In 1674 he was called to Edinburgh to fill the chair of mathematics in that university; but he had held this place for little more than a year, when, in October 1675, being employed in showing the satellites of Jupiter through a telescope to some of his pupils, he was [7:10:767]suddenly struck with total blindness, and died a few days after, at the early age of thirty-seven.

Gregory, David, Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and termed by Dr Smith subtilissimi ingenii mathematicus, was the eldest son of Mr Gregory of Kinnardie, brother of the before-mentioned Mr James Gregory. He was born at Aberdeen in the year 1661, and received the earlier part of his education in that city. He completed his studies at Edinburgh; and, being possessed of the mathematical papers of his uncle, soon distinguished himself as the heir of his genius. In the twenty-third year of his age he was elected professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh; and published, in the same year, Exercitatio Geometrica de dimensione Figurarum, sive specimen methodi generalis dimetiendi quasvis Figuras, Edinburgh, 1684, 4to. He early perceived the excellence of the Newtonian philosophy, and had the merit of being the first who introduced it into the schools by his public lectures at Edinburgh. “He had already caused several of his scholars to keep acts, as we call them,” says Whiston, “upon several branchesof the Newtonian philosophy; while we at Cambridge, poor wretches, were ignominiously studying the fictitious hypotheses of the Cartesian.”

In 1691, on the report of Dr Bernard’s'intention of resigning the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford, David Gregory repaired to London; and being patronized by Sir Isaac Newton, and warmly befriended by Mr Flamsteed, the astronomer-royal, he obtained the vacant professorship, for which Dr Halley was a competitor. This rivalship, however, instead of animosity, laid the foundation of a lasting friendship between these eminent men; and Halley soon afterwards became the colleague of Gregory, by obtaining the professorship of geometry in the same university. Soon after his arrival in London, Mr Gregory had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and, previously to his election as Savilian professor, he had the degree of doctor of physic conferred on him by the university of Oxford.^[1. On obtaining this professorship, he was succeeded in the mathematical chair at Edinburgh by his brother James, likewise an eminent mathematician, who held that office for thirty-three years, and when he retired in 1725, was succeeded by the celebrated Mac-Iaurin. A daughter of this Professor James Gregory, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments, was the victim of an unfortunate attachment, which furnished the subject of Malíet’s well-known ballad of william and Margaret. Ln 1707, another brother, Charles, was appointed by Queen Anne professor of mathematics at St Andrews. This office he held with reputation and ability for Lhirty-two years; and, on his resignation in 1739, was succeeded by his son, who eminently inherited the talents of his family," and died in I7β3. ]

In 1693 he published, in the Philosophical Transactions, a resolution of the Florentine problem De Testudine veli-formi quadribili ; and he continued to communicate to the public, from time to time, many ingenious mathematical papers, through the same channel. In 1695 he printed at Oxford Catoptricae et Dioptrica Spherica Elementa ; a work which, as he informs us in the preface, contains the substance of some of his public lectures, read, eleven years before, at Edinburgh. This valuable treatise was republished first with additions by Dr William Brown, and the recommendations of Mr Jones and Dr Desaguliers; and afterwards by the latter of these gentlemen, with an appendix containing an account of the Gregorian and Newtonian telescopes, together with Mr Hadley’s tables for the construction of both instruments. It is not unworthy of remark, that, at the end of this treatise, there is an observation which shows, that what is generally believed to be a discovery of a much later date, namely, the construction of achromatic telescopes, which Mr Dollond and Mr Ramsden carried to a high degree of perfection, had suggested itself to the mind of David Gregory, from reflecting on the admirable contrivance in nature in combining the different humours of the eye. The passage is as follows: ’ * Quod si ob difficultates physicas in speculis idoneis torno elaborandis et poliendis, etiamnum lentibus uti oporteat, fortassis media diversae densitatis ad lentem objectivam componendam adhibere utile foret, ut a natura factum observamus in oculi fabrica, ubi cristallinus humor (fere ejusdem cum vitro virtutis ad radios lucis refringendos) aqueo et vitreo (aquae quoad refractionem haud absimilibus) conjungitur, ad imaginem quam distincte fieri poterit, a natura nihil frustra moliente, in oculi fundo depingendam.”^[2. Catoptrics et Dioptrics Spherica Elementa, Oxon. 1695, p. 98. ]

In 1702 our author published at Oxford, Astronomia Physica et Geometrica Elementa, a work which is accounted his masterpiece. It is founded on the Newtonian doctrines, and was esteemed by Sir Isaac Newton himself an excellent explanation and defence of his philosophy. In the following year he gave to the world an edition in folio of the works of Euclid, Greek and Latin, in prosecution of a design, formed by his predecessor Dr Bernard, of printing the works of all the ancient mathematicians. In this work, which contains all the treatises attributed to Euclid, Dr Gregory has been careful to point out such as he found reason to believe, from internal evidence, to be the productions of some inferior geometrician. In prosecution of Dr Bernard’s scheme, Dr Gregory soon afterwards engaged with his colleague Halley in the publication of the Conics of Apollonius; but he had proceeded only a little way in this undertaking when, in 1710, he died at Maidenhead, in Berkshire, in the forty-ninth year of his age. To the genius and abilities of David Gregory, the most celebrated mathematicians of the age, Sir Isaac Newton, Dr Halley, and Dr Keill, have borne ample testimony. Indeed it appears that he enjoyed, in a high degree, the confidence and friendship of Sir Isaac Newton. This illustrious philosopher intrusted him with a manuscript copy of his Principia, for the purpose of making observations on that work. These observations came too late for the first edition of Newton’s great work; but he availed himself of them in the second edition. Besides the works published in his lifetime, he left in manuscript A short Treatise on the Nature and Arithmetic of Logarithms, which is printed at the end of Dr Keill’s translation of Commandine’s Euclid; and a Treatise of Practical Geometry, which was afterwards translated, and published in 1745, by Mr Maclaurin.

Dr David Gregory married, in 1695, Elizabeth, the daughter of Mr Oliphant of Langtown in Scotland, and by her had four sons, the eklest of whom, David, was appointed regius professor of modern history at Oxford by King George I. and died in 1767, at an advanced age, after enjoying for many years the dignity of dean of Christ Church in that university.

Gregory, Dr John, professor of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, was the son of Dr James Gregory, professor of medicine in King’s College, Aberdeen, and grandson of James, the inventor of the Gregorian telescope. His father was married first to Catharine Forbes, daughter of Sir John Forbes of Monymusk, by whom he had six children, most of whom died in infancy; and afterwards to Ann Chalmers, only daughter of the Reverend George Chalmers, principal of King’s College, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. John, the youngest of the three, was born at Aberdeen on the 3d of June 1724. Having lost his father when only in the seventh year of [7:10:768] his age, the care of his education devolved on his grandfather Principal Chalmers, and on his elder brother Dr James Gregory, who, upon the resignation of their father a short time before his death, had been appointed to succeed him in the professorship in King’s College. He likewise owed much in his infant years, and indeed during the whole course of his studies, to the care and attention of his cousin, the celebrated Dr Reid, afterwards of the university of Glasgow. The rudiments of his classical education he received at the grammar-school of Aberdeen; and under the eye of his grandfather he completed, in King’s College, his studies in the Latin and Greek languages, and in the sciences of ethics, mathematics, and natural philosophy. His master in philosophy and in mathematics was Thomas Gordon, professor of philosophy in King’s College, who ably filled an academical chair for above half a century.

In 1742 Mr Gregory went to Edinburgh, where the school of medicine was then rising into that celebrity for which it has since been so remarkably distinguished. Here he attended the anatomical lectures of the elder Dr Monro, of Dr Sinclair on the theory of medicine, and of Dr Rutherford on the practice of physic. He heard likewise the prelections of Dr Alston on the materia medica and botany, and of Dr Plummer on chemistry. The Medical Society of Edinburgh, instituted for the free discussion of all questions relative to medicine and philosophy, had begun to meet in 1737. Of this society we find Mr Gregory a member in 1742, at the time when Dr Mark Akenside, his fellow-student and intimate companion, was a member of the same institution.

In the year 1745 our author went to Leyden, and attended the lectures of Professors Gaubius, Albinus, and Van Royen. Whilst at this university he had the honour of receiving from the King’s College of Aberdeen, his alma mater, an unsolicited degree of doctor of physic; and soon afterwards, on his return from Holland, he was elected professor of philosophy in the same university. In this capacity he read lectures during the years 1747, 1748, and 1749, on mathematics, experimental philosophy, and ethics. In the end of 1749, however, he resigned his professorship of philosophy, his views being turned chiefly to the practice of physic, with which the duties of this professorship. occupying as they did a great portion of his time, too much interfered. Previously, however, to his settling ąs a physician at Aberdeen, he went for a few months to the Continent; a tour of which the chief motive was probably amusement, though to a mind like his certainly not without advantage in the enlargement of ideas, and an increased knowledge of mankind.

Some time after his return to Scotland, Dr Gregory married, in 1752, Elizabeth, daughter of William Lord Forbes, a young lady who, to the exterior endowments of great beauty and engaging manners, joined a very superior understanding and an uncommon share of wit. With her he received a handsome addition of fortune; and during the whole period of their union, which was only for the space of nine years, he enjoyed the highest portion of domestic happiness. Of her character it is enough to say, that her husband, in the admired little work, A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters, the last proof of his affection for them, declares, that “while he endeavours to point out what they should be, he draws but a very faint and imperfect picture of what their mother was.” The field of medical practice at Aberdeen being at that time in a great measure pre-occupied by his elder brother Dr James Gregory, and· others of some note in their profession, our author determined to try his fortune in London. Thither accordingly he proceeded in 1754; and being already known by reputation as a man of genius, he found an easy introduction to many persons of distinction, both in the literary and polite world. Amongst these may be mentioned George Lord Lyttleton, who became his friend and patron. An acquaintance, which had been founded on a striking similarity of manners, tastes, and dispositions, grew up into a firm and permanent friendship; and to that nobleman, to whom Dr Gregory was accustomed to communicate all hisΙiterary productions, the world is indebted for the publication of the Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man, which made him first known as an author. Dr Gregory likewise enjoyed the friendship of Edward Montagu and his lady, the celebrated champion of the fame of Shakspeare, against the cavils and calumnies of Voltaire.

In 1754 Dr Gregory was chosen fellow of the Royal Society of London; and as he made daily advances in the public esteem, it is not to be doubted that, had he continued his residence in the metropolis, his professional talents would have found their reward in an extensive practice. But the death of his brother, Dr James Gregory, in November 1755, having occasioned a vacancy in the professorship of physic in King’s College, Aberdeen, which he was solicited to fill, he returned to his native country in the þeginning of the following year, and took upon him the duties of that office, to which he had been elected in his absence.

Here he remained until the end of the year 1764, when, urged by a laudable ambition, and presuming on the reputation he had acquired as affording a reasonable prospect of success in a more extended field of practice, he changed his place of residence for Edinburgh. His friends in that metropolis had represented to him the situation of the medical school as favourable to his views of filling a chair in that university; and this accordingly he obtained in 1766, on the resignation of Dr Rutherford, professor of the practice of physic. In the same year he had’ the honour of being appointed first physician to his majesty for Scotland on the death of Dr Whytt.

On his first establishment in the university of Edinburgh, Dr Gregory gave lectures on the practice of physic during the years 1767, 1768, and 1769. Afterwards, by agreement with Dr Cullen, professor of the theory of physic, these two eminent men gave alternate courses on the theory and practice of physic. As a public speaker, Dr Gregory’s manner was simple, natural, and animated. Without the graces of oratory, which the subject he had to treat in a great degree precluded, he expressed his ideas with uncommon perspicuity, and in a style happily attempered between the formality of studied composition and the ease of conversation. It was his custom to premeditate, for a short time before entering the college, the subject of his lecture, consulting those authors to whom he had occasion to refer, and marking in short notes the arrangement of his intended discourse; then, fully master of his subject, and confident of his own powers, he trusted to his natural facility of expression to convey those opinions which he had maturely deliberated. The only lectures which he committed fully to writing were those introductory discourses which he read at the beginning of his annual course, and which are published under the title of Lectures on the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician. Of these, which were written with no view to publication, many copies were taken by his pupils, and some from the original manuscript, which he freely lent for their perusal. On hearing that a copy had been offered for sale to a bookseller, it became necessary to anticipate a fraudulent, and perhaps a mutilated publication, by authorizing an impression from a corrected copy, of which he gave the profits to a favourite pupil. These lectures were first published in 1770, and afterwards in an enlarged and more perfect form in 1772.

In the same year, 1772, Dr Gregory published EIe-ments[7:10:769] of the Practice of Physic, for the use of Students; ' a work intended solely for his own pupils, and to be used by himself as a text-book to be commented upon in his course of lectures. In an advertisement prefixed to this work, he signified his intention of comprehending in it the whole series of diseases of which he had treated in his Lectures on the Practice of Physic; but this intention he did not live to accomplish, having brought down the work no further than to the end of the class of Febrile Diseases.

Dr Gregory became early a victim to the gout, which began to show itself at irregular intervals even from the eighteenth year of his age. His mother, from whom he inherited that disease, died suddenly in 1770, whilst sitting at table. Dr Gregory had prognosticated for himself a similar death; an event of which, amongst his friends, he often talked, but had no apprehension of the nearness of its approach. In the beginning of the year 1773, whilst in conversation with his son Dr James Gregory, the latter remarked, that having for the three preceding years had no return of an attack, he might expect a pretty severe shock that season; and he received the observation with some degree of anger, as he felt himself then in his usual state of health. The prediction, however, proved but too true; for having gone to bed on the 9th of February 1773, with no apparent disorder, he was found dead in the morning. His death had been instantaneous, and probably in his sleep; for there was not the smallest discomposure of limb or feature.

Gregoby, Dr James, professor of the Practice of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and eldest son of the subject of the preceding notice, was born at Aberdeen in the year 1753, and there received the rudiments of his education. He accompanied his father to Edinburgh in 1764; and after going through the usual course of literary studies at Edinburgh, was for a short time a student at Christ Church College, Oxford, of which his relation Dr David Gregory had been dean. It was there probably that he acquired that taste for classical learning, and that admiration for the character of an accomplished classical scholar, which ever afterwards distinguished him. He entered early on the study of medicine at Edinburgh, and was a student in that faculty at the time of his father’s sudden, death, in February 1773. The extraordinary exertion which he then made to complete his father’s course of lectures, was regarded by many of his friends as sufficient indication of his ability to continue and extend the hereditary reputation of his family. He took the degree of doctor of physic at Edinburgh in 1774, and spent the greater part of the next two years in Holland, France, and Italy. It is worthy of notice, that his most intimate friend and companion on the Continent was Mr A. Macdonald, afterwards lord chief baron of the Court of Exchequer, in London.

After the death of Dr John Gregory, the chair of the Institutes of Medicine (then finally separated from that of the Practice of Medicine, of which Dr Cullen remained professor) was offered to Dr Drummond, who was at that time abroad, and who ultimately declined accepting it. For two winters the class was taught by Dr Duncan, whose appointment, however, was only temporary. In 1776 the chair was again declared vacant, and on the 1st of August of that year Dr Gregory was appointed professor. He began to lecture on the Institutes the next winter session, and in the succeeding year he commenced also the duty of teacher of Clinical Medicine in the Royal Infirmary, and continued to deliver at least one course of clinical lectures annually, for more than twenty years.

From the time of commencing his duties as professor Dr Gregory was continually engaged in medical practice ;, but his practice amongst the higher ranks of society was not extensive until many of his pupils had been settled in business, and were desirous of availing themselves of his assistance. For the last twenty-five years of his life he was much engaged in consulting practice; and for the last ten he was decidedly at the head of his profession in Scotland. Indeed, the boldness, originality, and strength of his intellect, and the energy and decision of his character, were so strongly marked in his conversation, that, wherever his professional character was known, it could hardly fail to inspire general confidence.

In 1778 he published his Conspectus Medicince Theoretic<ε, as a text-book for his lectures on the Institutes. This work passed through several editions, both during his lifetime and since his death, and has been very generally admired, partly on account of the accurate view which it affords of the state of medical science at the period when it was composed, and partly for the ease, perspicuity, and elegance of its Latinity. The greater part of the work is occupied by the principles of Therapeutics; and as it must be confessed that there has been less improvement since that time in the investigation of the powers of remedies, than of the principles either of Physiology or Pathology, that portion of it may still be studied with advantage by all medical men.

On the illness of Dr Cullen in 1790, he was appointed joint-professor of the Practice of Medicine; he became sole professor on the death of Dr Cullen in the same year; and continued to deliver lectures on that subject, to audiences almost regularly increasing, until his last illness in 1821. He died on the 2d of April of that year.

As a practitioner and teacher of medicine, it may be stated that Dr Gregory was chiefly distinguished by his clear perception, and constant application, of the truth contained in a maxim which he was accustomed to quote from a favourite Greek author: “The best physician is he who can distinguish what he can do from what he cannot do.” He distrusted all theories in regard to the intimate nature of diseased actions, as premature and visionary; but he had early and carefully studied the diagnostic and prognostic symptoms, and the various forms of the most important diseases, and the agency of the most powerful remedies; and, without entering into the minutiae of morbid anatomy, he had a clear understanding of the changes of structure to be apprehended from disease in the different internal parts of the body. On these points, and their immediate practical bearing, he fixed all his attention. When he thought that these changes were approaching, and could be arrested by active treatment, he urged the truly effectual remedies with the peculiar energy of his character; restrained only by his strong good sense and ample experience, and despising all parade of nicety, pr variety of prescription. When he was satisfied that the nature or the stage of the disease did not admit of effectual cure, his decision of character was equally shown in abstaining from useless interference, and confining his views to the relief of suffering.

As a teacher, he was always strongly impressed with the duty of fixing the attention of his pupils on those points in the history of disease, and in the application of remedies, the knowledge of which he had found by experience to be most practically important,and the ignorance of which he thought practically dangerous. The characteristic symptoms and varieties of inflammatory diseases, and the extent to which the antiphlogistic treatment might be carried in opposing them, were, therefore, subjects on which he dwelt with peculiar earnestness; and in regard to the use of those remedies in such diseases, he had acquired, by long and keen observation, a tact and decision which probably were never surpassed. On the other hand, in regard to those numerous chronic diseases, where remedies are so frequently ineffectual, he was equally zealous in inculcating those means of prevention which he thought most effectual and most attainable; and whilst he was incredulous as to the alleged virtue of most medicines in such diseases, [7:10:770]he omitted no opportunity of illustrating the efficacy of temperance, even of abstinence, of bodily exertion without fatigue, and mental occupation without anxiety, in averting their approach, or even arresting their progress. From these great practical objects of his labours as a teacher, no consideration ever turned him aside. His extensive reading, particularly of the older authors, never led to pedantic displays of learning; his logical acuteness never beguiled him into useless controversies; his fertility of imagination never carried him beyond the simplest and most practical views of the subjects of which he treated.

As a lecturer, he possessed the great advantages of a command of language, which made him almost independent of any written notes, and of a tenacity of memory which enabled him to detail cases, in illustration of his principles, year after year, from the whole range of his experience, merely from having the names of the patients before him, without the slightest inaccuracy or omission. The commanding energy and quickness of intellect which his lectures displayed, the frank and fearless exposition of his opinions which they containea, the classical allusions with which they abounded, and the genuine humour by which they were often enlivened, rendered them peculiarly attractive and interesting, and acquired for him a remarkable ascendency over the minds of his pupils.

In the practice of the profession he was remarkable for the frankness and candour of his communications with the relations and friends of the sick; and for the zealous and even tender interest, always increasing with the difficulty and danger of the case, which he took in his patients. This made the more impression, as it contrasted with a certain roughness of external manner, and a constitutional hilarity and whimsical humour, which on some occasions, it must be owned, like thatofa celebrated fictitious character, made him “not hesitate between his friend and his joke.”

His conduct with his professional brethren in consultation was eminently distinguished by candour and liberality, and the total absence of all professional trick. He never attempted to make himself of importance, but was ever ready to give the strongest commendation to the treatment previously pursued, when he thought it judicious; always laying stress on the great and essential points of practice, and never giving an undue importance to favourite nostrums, or remedies of a secondary or frivolous kind. Thus the young practitioner, who was attentive to his duties, and honourable in his conduct, always found in him a zealous friend; those only had to dread coming into collision with him, who were wanting in professional zeal or professional integrity.

Dr Gregory’s more intimate friends and connections were strongly attached to him on account of the warmth and steadiness of his attachments, of a generosity of disposition bordering on profusion, and of a high and somewhat aristocratic sense of honour, which made him instinctively shrink from any proceeding liable to the slightest Imputation of meanness, selfishness, or duplicity.

He had therefore an utter detestation for all those professional arts by which the favour of the public is sometimes too successfully propitiated; and this was the true origin of various controversies in which he was at different times engaged with his professional brethren, and to which his strong sense of humour, his fondness for logical disputation, and (it must be confessed) a somewhat irascible temper, led him to devote more of his .time and attention than their importance deserved. For the interests of the Medical School, and of the medical profession of Edinburgh, the continuance of these disputes was a matter of serious regret; but the feelings which led him to engage in them were too well understood and appreciated, to permit them to occasion him any loss, either of private friendships or of public estimation.

No medical teacher or practitioner of eminence was ever more ready to acknowledge the imperfection of his art, more distrustful of medical theories, or even of the alleged results of medical practice, when not in accordance with his own experience; or more careless of posthumous reputation. But none was ever more solicitous to give, both to his pupils and his patients, the full benefit of those principles of medical science, of the truth and importance of which he was himself convinced; and on this account his professional character had assumed, long before his death, a superiority over most of his contemporaries, of which those who judge of it only from his own contributions to medical science or literature cannot form an adequate conception.

Dr Gregory used to say, that whilst physic had been the business, metaphysics had been the amusement, of his life. Of this predilection we have a highly honourable testimony, in Dr Reid’s Dedication to him and to his illustrious friend Mr Dugald Stewart, of his Essays on the Intellectual Powers, published in 1785; and, at a much later period of his life, in the cordial friendship which united him with the late Dr Thomas Brown, and the warm interest which he took in the appointment of that eminent metaphysician to the Chair of Moral Philosophy, on Mr Stewart’s resignation of it, and retirement from the University. It is proper to add, however, that on some important metaphysical questions the opinions of Dr Brown were different from those of Dr Gregory, and probably never were the subject of discussion between them.

His own metaphysical and literary works are, A Theory of the Moods of Verbs, published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions for 1787; and his Literary and Philosophical Essays, in two volumes, published in 1792. The main object of the latter work was to explain and defend a new argument on the old controversy as to the liberty or necessity of human actions; and whatever may be thought of the soundness of the argument, no one has ever disputed the acuteness and power of logical reasoning which he displayed in defence of it. It must be admitted, however, that his ideas of metaphysical inquiry were in some respects limited. He regarded metaphysics rather as a field for syllogistic reasoning, than as a subject of inquiry directed to the establishment of general principles by induction; and one of his favourite doctrines, that metaphysics admit of no discoveries, if admitted as literally correct, would almost imply that the study can lead to no useful practical results.

He retained throughout life a fervent admiration for the classical authors, and a severe and somewhat fastidious taste in literature, which was formed on the classical models. Several of the lighter and controversial writings with which he amused himself, particularly his Memorials on certain changes in the arrangements of the Royal Infirmary in 1800 and 1803, exhibit very numerous examples of his ready recollection and happy application of quotations from the classics; and a number of Latin epitaphs and inscriptions of various kinds, which he composed at different periods of his life, attest an accuracy of knowledge of the Latin language, and a purity of taste in Latin composition, which few men have the faculty of retaining throughout a lifetime of incessant professional labour.

Dr Gregory was married in 1782, to Miss Mary Ross; but within a few months after her marriage, this lady, to the extreme regret of all her friends, became decidedly consumptive, and survived only two years. After her death her two sisters continued to reside with their brother-in-law, until they both successively sunk under the same cruel disease. In 1796, he married one of the daughters of the late Mr M*Leod of Geanies, by whom he had a large family. His second son devoted himself with zeal and ability to the profession of medicine. He had entered on [7:10:771]practice, had already been placed in several responsible situations in Edinburgh, and distinguished himself by some papers on medical subjects, when he was unfortunately carried off by a fever contracted in the course of his duties, in 1832. But other sons survive, and it is hoped that they may still afford another application of the proud anti singularly appropriate motto of the family, Nec deficit alter. (a. a. a. a.)