*

LOCKE was born in 1632 at Wrington, Somersetshire, on the 29th of August, the anniversary, as Dr. Forster takes care to let us know, of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist-eight years after Sydenham, and ten before Newton. He left Westminster school in 1651, and entered Christ Church, distinguishing himself chiefly in the departments of medicine and general physics, and greatly enamored of the brilliant and then new philosophy of Descartes.

might do so without knowing less of their | to act as his own physician, on account of Auscultation, Histology, and other good his general feebleness of health and tendency things, than they do, and with knowing them to consumption. To show the incorrectness to much better purpose. We wonder, for of this statement, we give the following short instance, how many of the century of gradu- notice of his medical studies and practice; it ates sent forth from our University every is necessarily slight, but justifies, we think, year-armed with microscope, stethoscope, our assertion in regard to him qua medicus. uroscope, pleximeter, &c., and omniscient of rales and rhonchi, sibilous and sonorous; crepitations moist and dry; bruits de rape, de scie, et de soufflet; blood plasmata cytoblasts and nucleated cells, and great in the infinitely little-we wonder how many of these eager and accomplished youths could "unsphere the spirit of Plato," or read with moderate relish and understanding one of the Tusculan Disputations, or who had ever heard of "Butler's Three Sermons on Human Nature," "Berkeley's Minute Philosopher," or of an "Essay on the Conduct of the Understanding," of which Mr. Hallam says, "I cannot think any parent or instructor justified in neglecting to put this little treatise in the hands of a boy about the time that the reasoning faculties become developed," and whose admirable author we shall now endeavor to prove to have been much more one of themselves than is generally supposed. In coming to this conclusion, we have been mainly indebted to the classical, eloquent, and conclusive tract by Lord Grenville, entitled "Oxford and Locke;" to Lord King's life of his great kinsman; to Wood's Athena and Fasti Oxonienses; to the letters from Locke to Drs. Mapletoft, Molyneux, Sir Hans Sloane and Boyle, published in the collected edition of his works; to Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors; and to a very curious collection of letters of Locke, Algernon Sidney, the second Lord Shaftesbury, and others, edited and privately printed by the eccentric Dr. T. Forster.

Le Clerc, in his Eloge upon Locke in the Bibliothèque Choisie, (and in this he has been followed by all subsequent biographers,) states, that when a student at Christ Church, Oxford, he devoted himself with great earnestness to the study of Medicine, but that he never practiced it as his profession, his chief object having been to qualify himself

s'entendre, la séduction de l'esprit de système, et l'abus des expressions vagues et indéterminées ont amené de milliers des volumes et des disputes interminables ?"-Méthodes d'Etudier en Médecine.

*We suppose we shall soon arrive at that exquisite nicety predicted by Mandeville, when our uroscope will enable us to "diagnose" in the product of a Sunday the religion, and in that of a weekday the politics, of our patient.

In connection with Locke's university studies, Anthony Wood, in his autobiography, has the following curious passage: "I began a course of chemistry under the noted chemist and rosicrucian Peter Sthael of Strasburg, a s rict Lutheran, and a great hater of women. The club consisted of ten, whereof were Frank Turner, now Bishop of Ely, Benjamin Woodroof, now Canon of Christ Church, and John Locke of the same house, now a noted writer. This same John Locke was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous, and never contented; while the rest of our club took notes from the mouth of their master, who sat at the upper end of a long table, the said Locke scorned to do this, but was for ever prating and troublesome." This misogynistical rosicrucian was brought over to Oxford by Boyle, and had among his pupils Sir Christopher Wren, Dr. Wallis, and Sir Thomas Millington. The fees were three pounds, one half paid in advance.

Locke continued through life greatly addicted to medical and chemical researches. He kept the first regular journal of the weather, and published it from time to time. in the Philosophical Transactions, and in Boyle's History of the Air. He used in his observations a barometer, a thermometer, and a hygrometer. His letters to Boyle are full of experiments and speculations about chemistry and medicine; and in a journal kept by him when traveling in France, is this remarkable entry: "M. Toinard produced a large bottle of muscat; it was clear when he set it on the table, but when the stopper was drawn a multitude of little bubbles arose. It comes from this, that the included air had liberty to expand itself;— query, whether this be air new generated. Take a bottle of fermenting liquor, and tie a

bladder over its mouth, how much new air will this produce, and has this the quality of common air?" We need hardly add, that about a hundred years after this, Dr. Black answered this capital query, and in doing so, transformed the whole face of chemistry.

derful superiority to the cases to be found in medical authors of the same date, than by saying that in expression, in description, in diagnosis, and in treatment, it differs very little from what we have in our own best works.

After the Earl's death, Locke returned to England, and seems to have lived partly at Exeter House with Lord Shaftesbury, and partly at Oxford. It was in 1670, at the latter place, that he sketched the first outline of his immortal Essay, the origin of which he has so modestly recorded in his Epistle to the Reader. Dr. Thomas, and most probably Dr. Sydenham, were among the "five or six friends who met at my chambers," and started the idea of that work, "which has done more than any other single work to rectify prejudice, to undermine established errors, to diffuse a just mode of thinking, to excite a fearless spirit of inquiry, and yet to contain it within the boundaries nature has set to the human faculties. If Bacon first discovered the rules by which knowledge is to be advanced, Locke has most contributed by precept and example to make mankind at large observe them, and has thus led to that general diffusion of a healthful and vigorous understanding, which is at once the greatest of all improvements, and the instrument by which all other improvements must be accomplished."

We now find that, in contradiction to the generally received account, Wood, who was an Oxford man, and living on the spot, says, in his spiteful way, "Mr. Locke, after having gone through the usual courses preparatory to practice, entered upon the physic line, and got some business at Oxford." Nothing can be more explicit than this, and more directly opposed to Le Clerc's account of his friend's early life, which, it may be remembered, was chiefly derived from notes furnished by the second Lord Shaftesbury, whose information must necessarily have been at second or third hand. In 1666, Lord Ashley, afterward the first Lord Shaftesbury, came to Oxford to drink the water of Astrop; he was suffering from an abscess in his chest, the consequence of a fall from his horse. Dr. Thomas, his lordship's attendant, happening to be called out of town, sent his friend Locke, then practicing there, who examined into his complaints, and advised the abscess to be opened; this was done, and, as the story goes, his lordship's life was saved. From this circumstance took its origin the well-known friendship of these two famous men. That their connection at first was chiefly that of patient and doctor, is plain from the expression, "He, the Earl, would not suffer him to practice medicine out of his house, except among some of his particular friends," implying that he was practicing when he took him. In 1668, Locke, then in his 36th year, accompanied the Earl and Countess of Northumberland to the Continent, as their physician. The Earl died on his journey to Rome, leaving Locke with the Countess in Paris. When there, he attended her during a violent attack of what seems to have been tic-douloureux, a most interesting account of which, and of the treatment he adopted, was presented by the late Lord King to the London College of Physicians, and was read before them in 1829. We have, by the great kindness of Dr. Paris, the presi-jects, dent of the College, had access to a copy of this medical and literary curiosity, which, besides its own value as a plain, clear statement of the case, and as an example of simple, skillful treatment, is the best of all proofs that at that time Locke was a regular physician. We cannot give this case higher praise, or indicate more significantly its won

About this time Locke seems to have been made a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1674 he took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine; he never was Doctor of Medicine, though he generally passed among his friends as Dr. Locke..

In 1675 he went abroad for his health, and apparently, also, to pursue his medical studies. He remained for some time at Montpellier, then the most famous of the schools of medicine. He attended the lectures of the celebrated Barbyrac, to whose teaching Sydenham is understood to have been so much indebted. When there, and during his residence abroad, he kept a diary, large extracts from which are for the first time given by Lord King. The following

*Lord King refers to numerous passages in Locke's Diaries exclusively devoted to medical sub

which he has refrained from publishing, as unlikely to interest the general public; and Dr. Forster gives us to understand that he has in his witty letters to his friend Furley on medicine, his possession "some ludicrous, sarcastic, and truly original profession;" but which letters the doctor declines giving to the public "in these days of absurd refinement." We would gladly forswear our refinement to have a sight of them; anything that Locke considered worth the writing down about anything is likely to be worth the reading.

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for the Doctor held his professorship till the 10th October 1679, and in November following, married Rebecca, the daughter of Mr. Lucy Knightley of Hackney, a Hamburg merchant. And we know that on the 10th of May that same year, Locke was sent for from Paris by Lord Shaftesbury, when his Lordship was made President of Sir William Temple's Council, half a year after which they were both exiles in Holland. As we have already said, there is something very characteristic in this jocular, pawky, affectionate letter.

account of the annual "capping" at Montpellier is very amusing. The manner of making a Doctor of Physic is this: 1st, a procession in scarlet robes and black capsthe professor took his seat-and after a company of fiddlers had played a certain time, he made them a sign to hold, that he might have an opportunity to entertain the company, which he did in a speech against innovations—the musicians then took their turn. The Inceptor or candidate, then began his speech, wherein I found little edification, being chiefly complimentary to the chancellor and professors, who were present. The Doctor then put on his head the cap that had marched in on the beadle's staff, in sign of his doctorship-put a ring upon his finger-girt himself about the loins with a gold chain-made him sit down beside him that having taken pains he might now-how much the philosophy of mind would take ease, and kissed and embraced him in token of the friendship which ought to be amongst them.”

From Montpellier he went to Paris, and was a diligent student of anatomy under Dr. Guenelon, with whom he was afterward so intimate, when living in exile at Amsterdam. In June 1667, when in Paris, he wrote the following jocular letter to his friend Dr. Mapletoft, then physic professor at Gresham College. This letter, which is not noticed in any life of Locke that we have seen, is thus introduced by Dr. Ward: Dr. Mapletoft did not continue long at Gresham, and yet longer than he seems to have designed, by a letter to him, written by the famous Mr. John Locke, dated from Paris, 22d June 1677, in which is this passage: If either absence (which sometimes increases our desires) or love (which we see every day produces strange effects in the world) have softened you, or disposed you toward a liking for any of our fine new things, 'tis but saying so, and I am ready to furnish you, and should be sorry not to be employed; I mention love, for you know I have a particular interest of my own in it. When you look that way, nobody will be readier, as you may guess, to throw an old shoe after you, much for your own sake, and a little for a friend of yours. But were I to advise, perhaps I should say that the lodgings at Gresham College were a quiet and comfortable habitation.' By this passage," continues Ward, "it seems probable that Dr. Mapletoft had then some views to marriage, and that Mr. Locke was desirous, should it so fall out, to succeed him. But neither of these events happened at the time,

There can be little doubt from this, that so late as 1677, when he was 45 years of age, Locke was able and willing to undertake the formal teaching of medicine.

It would not be easy to say how much mankind would have at once lost and gained

have been hindered, and how much that of medicine would have been advanced, had John Locke's lungs been as sound as his understanding, and had he "stuck to the physic line,' or had his friend Dr. Mapletoft "looked that way" a little earlier, and made Rebecca Knightley his wife two years sooner, or had Lord Shaftesbury missed the royal reconcilement and his half year's presidency.

Medicine would assuredly have gained something it still lacks, and now perhaps more than ever, had that "friend of yours,' having thrown the old shoe with due solemnity and precision at the heads of the happy couple, much for their sakes and a little for his own, settled down in that quiet, comfortable, baccalaurean habitation, over against the entrance into Bishopsgate street, and had thenceforward, in the prime of life, directed the full vigor of that singularly enlightened, sound, humane, and practical understanding, to the exposition, of what Lord Grenville so justly calls, "the large and difficult" subject of medicine. What an amount of gain to rational and effective medicinewhat demolition of venerable and mischievous error-what exposition of immediately useful truth-what an example for all future laborers in that vast and perilous field, of the best method of attaining the best ends, might not have been expected from him of whom it was truly said that "he knew something of everything that could be useful to mankind!" It is no wonder then, that looking from the side of medicine, we grudge the loss of the Locke "Physic Lectures," and wish that we might, without fable, imagine ourselves in that quaint steep-roofed quad