had he felt the necessity in his youth of frequently committing his thoughts to writing, for the purpose of preserving them. But, whether this be just or not, it must be confessed, that, notwithstanding his great learning, which embraced many subjects no way allied to medicine, he seldom wrote elegantly, often obscurely and inaccurately; and that he frequently erred with respect even to orthography. His language, however, in conversation, which confirms the preceding conjecture, was not loss correct than that of most other persons of good education As a lecturer, his delivery was slow and hesitating, and frequently interrupted by pauses not required by his subject. Sometimes, indeed, these continued so long, that persons unaccustomed to his manner, were apt to fear that he was embarrassed. But these disadvantages did not prevent his having a considerable number of pupils, actuated by the expectation of receiving from him more full and accurate instruction than they could elsewhere obtain His person is said to have been handsome in his youth; but his countenance, from its fulness, must have been always inexpressive of the great powers of his mind. His manners too were less refined, and his dress in general less studied, than what most persons in this country regard as proper for a physician. From these causes, and from his spending no more time with his patients than what was sufficient for his forming a just opinion of their ailments, he had for many years but little private employment in his profession; and never, even in the latter part of his life, when his reputation was at its height, enjoyed nearly so much as many of his contemporaries. It is worthy of mention, however, that the amount of his fees, during the year immediately preceding his decease, was greater, notwithstanding his advanced age and infirm health, than it had ever been before in the same space of time. He had always been fond of the pleasures of society; and in his youth, to render the enjoyment of them compatible with his pursuits after knowledge, he used to sleep very little. He has often, indeed, been known to lecture for three hours in a morning without having undressed himself the preceding night. The vigour of his constitution enabled him to sustain, for a considerable time, without apparent injury, this debilitating mode of life. But at length he was attacked with gout, which afterwards became irregular, and for many years frequently affected him with excruciating pains in his stomach and bowels. In the latter part of his life also, his feet and ancles were almost constantly swollen; and, shortly before his death, he had symptoms of water in the chest. But these he disregarded, and uniformly attributed his situntion, which for several weeks previous to his death he knew to be hopeless, to the presence of the first-mentioned disease. Death ultimately relieved him from his sufferings, May 25, 1802, when he was in the 64th year of his age. By his wife, who was the daughter of Charles Stuart, Esq., conservator of Scots privileges in the United Netherlands, and whom he had married in 1762, he left four children, two sons and two daughters.
FORDYCE, James, D.D., author of the Sermons to Young Women, was a younger brother of the subject of a separate article, and the fourth son of his parents. He was born at Aberdeen in 1720, and received the education requisite for a minister of the Scottish church at the Marischal college. In 1752, he was appointed minister of Brechin, but soon after was removed to Alloa, where at first he had many prejudices to encounter, though his popular manners and captivating style of pulpit oratory enabled him very speedily to overcome them. During his brief residence in this parish, he published three occasional sermons, which attracted much notice; and in 1760, he increased his fame to a great degree by a discourse "On the Folly, Infamy, and Misery of Unlawful Pleasures," which he preached before the General Assembly, and afterwards gave to the public. The novelty of this sermon in a country where all the best sermons were
