The acerbity of temper which shewed itself in his "Theological Disputations," interfered with his medical conduct, so that his brethren of the profession were not upon very good terms with him. This is always injurious to medical men. They sometimes think that, however obnoxious they may be to their medical brethren, they shall obtain the good will of the public. But this is a grievous error: the opinion of the public generally coincides with that of the profession, and he whom the profession does not uphold, seeks in vain to obtain emi

nence.

His occupation as a physician was not so extensive as to compel him to omit his theological researches; he found leisure to employ himself in writing "The Moral Philosopher," which was published in 1737. This work at once excited great attention. Its doctrines were assailed by many eminent and able polemics, and were as stoutly defended by the author, who in 1739 published a second volume of "the Moral Philosopher," containing Tracts in defence of his opinions; and in 1740 a third volume. But though his pen was ready and his answers acute, his arguments were fallacious and unconvincing. His opponents, it is true, did not always use the evidences in their favour to the best advantage, and therefore he sometimes gave them hard knocks, but could never beat them out of the field. the midst of all this, the popular feeling began to go against him; he was generally believed to entertain atheistical opinions, though they were in reality deistical, and the little practice he had as a physician was diminished by vituperations on his moral character.

In

Whether before this time he had addicted himself to excessive drinking, or whether the vexation and disappointment, which now beset him, led to intemperance, cannot be ascertained; but towards the close of his life, in

11

dulgence in drink became his great failing.

His death took place in 1743, and it is thus announced in the Gentleman's Magazine of that year:

"Jan. 14. Thomas Morgan, M.D. in Broad-street, Author of the Moral Philosopher and other Tracts, and is said to have died with a true Christian resignation."

Dr. Morgan left a widow in narrow circumstances, and an only son, Nathaniel. Unfortunately the father was too much engaged in investigating the more abtruse doctrines of theology, to attend properly to the education of his son, who in consequence grew up in idle and irregular habits. Young Morgan had a cousin Nathaniel Potticary, descended from a family of that name at Trowbridge and Warminster. These two cousins undertook a roving commercial enterprise to Spanish America; but being unable to escape the jealous apprehensiveness of the Spanish authorities, were both taken prisoners and sent separately up the country. Of Potticary no certain intelligence ever reached his friends, but Morgan made his escape, and after many perils reached Jamaica. Here he became acquainted with the widow of a planter in good circumstances, whom he married, and had a son named after his grandfather, Tho

mas.

This boy, together with a half brother by the first husband, was sent to England for education, and he returned to Jamaica in 1784. Whether he be still living, or what fate befell him, is not known.

Such is the brief information I have been able to obtain, of a man whose intellectual attainments might have enabled his name to descend to posterity, in the same honourable list as those of Watts, Lardner, Lowman, and others; whose writings are held in deserved esteem and veneration, or he might have ranked high as a physician and pathologist. But ill-directed enquiries led him into error. He bewildered himself by attempting to develope the intricacies of theology; he lost the friendship of his relations and of all who entertained serious religious sentiments; he contributed to keep alive an extensively spread opinion, untrue assuredly as a general proposition, that the members of the medical profession are prone to freethinking, or indifference as to religion; he

shortened his life by intemperance; he left a widow in poverty, and was the cause of his son's alienation from his home and his country. His life and his writings, instead of being referred to as bright examples of honour and talent, must be held up as a warning; and happy those, who from his fate may be deterred from hastily and inconsiderately endeavouring to overturn doctrines which have stood, and will continue to stand, firm against all such vain efforts to overthrow them. Yours, &c. Ἱλαρανθρωπος.

Jan. 14.

Mr. URBAN, OBSERVING a communication from one of your correspondents in your magazine for December, p. 483, on that all engrossing subject, the disease termed Cholera,-allow me to offer a few remarks on a part of the subject, which relates to the possibility of propagating the malady from the infected districts to other parts of the kingdom, in a way which your correspondent seems not to have taken into consideration, but which appears to me extremely probable, considering the magnitude of the Coal trade between the ports of Newcastle, Shields, Sunderland, and Seaham, with the other ports of the kingdom.

Let us suppose a vessel leaving the river Tyne with the crew infected with this dreadful disease, and before arriving at her destined port, she should be overtaken by a gale of wind and driven on shore. In any event, if the catastrophe of shipwreck occurs, the humanity of Englishmen is such as to render every possible aid to the sufferers, without waiting to ascertain previously from what port the ship sailed, or where it was destined. The first impulse of our nature is to aid mariners in distress; and sorry should I be, even to be suspected of recommending that sort of deliberation in cases of extremity which should, under motives of precaution or contingent exemption from evil, prevent men from doing their duty to their fellow-creatures in distress.

Yet it is possible, and by no means improbable, that during the severe gales of the winter and spring season such an event might occur as а vessel having the Cholera on board, being stranded on some part of the

coast between Shields and Aberdeen on the north, and between the same port and Plymouth on the west, and as in such case the common motives of humanity would prevail in providing the best possible accommodation for the unfortunate seamen, there is certainly a possibility of this malignant and (as it is now proved) contagious disease being communicated by such means to uninfected districts. That the disease may be communicated by means of shipping (or rather by seamen) seems no longer a matter of doubt; the statement which appeared in the papers a few days since of a vessel arriving in the Firth of Forth, in which some of the crew died, having fully established the fact. Indeed I see no reason to doubt the conclusions drawn by your correspondent (p. 484), that the habits of sailors, together with the dirty state of the shipping employed in the Coal trade, affords a very fertile source for propagating the disease, through most of the ports in the east and south east part of the kingdom, unless the most rigid measures are adopted with respect to quarantine. In the case I have supposed, there would, however, be no time to deliberate about a vessel having a clean bill of health, or a foul bill of health. To aid a certain number of fellow creatures in escaping from a watery grave, is the first or rather the only consideration.

In illustration of my argument, I beg leave to mention a circumstance which occurred in the month of August last at Ramsgate, at which delightful watering place I was sojourning a few weeks for the benefit of health; and should I be incorrect in any of the details, I shall feel happy in being corrected by any of your correspondents, who happened to be enjoying the saline breezes at that favourite bathing place at the time.

A vessel sloop rigged, as I understood belonging to Dover, having been out in the North Sea (near the GalIopper Light) fell in with a boat having a ship's crew on board, the vessel having foundered at sea. The men having been taken on board the fisherman, stated that they had left Riga (or some other port of the Baltic infected by the Cholera, which I do not at present remember); but as the crew of the fisherman had no other alternative than that of landing the unfortunate

1832.]

shipwrecked foreigners at some English port, they bore up for Ramsgate as the nearest. On making their report to the harbour-master the vessel was very properly placed under quarantine in the middle of the harbour (the quarantine ground) for six or seven days, till all risk of danger was supposed to be at an end. The vessel was accordingly liberated; but as I was informed without the crew obtaining any compensation for their loss of time; and without taking into consideration the reward they ought to have received from some authority for their humane exertions in endeavouring to save the lives of their fellow-creatures*.

Now, although I should be extremely sorry to argue that any deliberation ought to take place, should a vessel bound from Newcastle to the port of London be stranded on the coast of Lincoln or Norfolk, in giving every possible aid to the unfortunate seamen, yet, in order to fulfil the objects of the quarantine regulations, it will become necessary that immediately after the first offices of humanity are discharged in saving the lives of such men, they should be placed in a detached building for a given number of days, until every possibility of communicating the dreadful epidemic now prevailing in the north of England, shall be placed beyond a doubt by medical examination. Z.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 6.

IN the year 1824 two curious Bowls were found in the bed of the Severn, near the Haw Passage; one of which, in the possession of Jeremiah Hawkins, esq. was described in your vol. XCIV. ii. 164; and further noticed in vol. xcv. i. 417, 605. It is ornamented in seven compartments, with engravings of the stories of Ganymede, Eurydice, and others in ancient my thology; as is detailed in your pages at the place first named. A large lithograph was also made, and copied in the Monthly Magazine.

Of the second bowl, which was found shortly after the first, at nearly

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the same part of the river, and is kept at the Haw Passage public-house, I have seen neither drawing nor description in any periodical, and as I promised the latter when I last wrote to you on this subject, I am now enabled to send it you.

It is in every respect a fellow of the first-mentioned bowl, except in the engravings. The shape is circular, 104 inches in diameter, with an horizontal rim at top, 3-8ths inch wide. Its depth internally at the centre, 1 13-16ths inch, and its thickness 1-8th inch. It is of a bright yellowish cast, and somewhat resembles bellmetal. The annexed outline sketch and section (drawn to a scale of 6 inches to an inch) will tend to make the description more interesting.

SECTION

On the surface of its concavity, within seven compartments, are the rude engravings; in the periphery of each of which is a Latin hexameter engraved in Roman capitals. The centre compartment is 34 inches wide, and is raised 3-16ths of an inch above the lowest part of the bowl. Cadmus is here represented at his studies; he is said to have first introduced the use of letters into Greece, which is thus

"Et combusserat idram," in this line alludes (I imagine) to his destruction of the Lernæan hydra, which had seven heads. As soon as one was mangled another sprang up in its place, until Iolas with a hot iron burnt the root of the head which Hercules had crushed to pieces.

In the sixth division, Hercules is represented attacking the famous robber Cacus, said to have had three heads, and to have vomited flames. This took place after his victory over Geryon, in consequence of Cacus stealing some of his cows, which the robber dragged backwards into his cave in order to prevent discovery. The allu

*The word here omitted is in the copy of the lines I have by me quite unintelligible, but it evidently means cattle, cows, or

oxen.

sion is in the three first words of the following line:

CACUS. CESSIT. EI- SUCCUMBIT. JANITOR. ORCI.

The latter part of the above line describes his last labour, which was to bring upon earth Cerberus, the watchful keeper of the entrance into Hell. Pluto permitted Hercules to carry his own force. away the dog, provided he used only

The death of Hercules is the subject of the seventh compartment. He is represented on a burning pile, which was erected by himself on Mount Æta, on account of the credulity of Dejanira, the cruelty of Eurystheus, and the jealousy of Juno. On this he laid himself down, leaning his head on his club. The pile was set on fire, and he was suddenly surrounded by flames. Jupiter seeing him from heaven, raised his immortal parts to the skies, as a hero who had freed the earth from so many monsters.

The circumscribed description is

INCENDEBAT. EVM. MERETRIX. DEJA

CONSIDERING the intimate association which exists between the prominent topographical and geographical features of our Island, and the geological arrangement of the mineral strata, I have been induced to believe that a synoptical view of the British series, describing the general outline of the respective strata, together with the application of the several mineral products to the purposes of Civil Economy and the Arts, might be acceptable to a numerous portion of the readers of the Gentleman's Magazine; more especially by way of adjunct to the amusement, if not the edification, of the English tourist.

If true patriotism consists in attachment to our native land and its institutions, how much will that patriotism be augmented, if it can be shown that, independent of our institutions, we possess infinitely greater advantages in Geological position, or in other words, in mineral treasures, than any spot of equal area on the entire face of the globe.

Were it necessary to make out a case, by citing proofs of the extent to

which both our maritime and manufacturing interests are dependant on our Mineral products, it would be only necessary to give a brief history of our extensive Coaleries; of our Iron works; Lead, Copper, and Tin Mines, and the manufactories to which they furnish employment for at least one-third of the population of Great Britain.

Independent of the specific interest which every Englishman must feel (or ought to feel) for the welfare of his country, and the advancement of its internal resources; there is something peculiarly interesting to the intelligent Tourist, in being able to appreciate, and describe to others, the Geological superposition of the strata in any given district over which he may be travelling; more especially should he have leisure to investigate the stratification of the district, so as to explain or account for any anomalies that may exist from the operation of volcanic or of diluvial action, in causing a disturbance of the strata.

A considerable proportion of your readers, Mr. Urban, are either Topographical, Geographical, or Geological virtuosi, who would derive but slight information beyond what they already possess from any popular view of our mineral strata. Yet should you think fit to allow me a few columns in your venerable Magazine, I shall feel much pleasure in sending you (monthly) a series of popular Geological Essays on the stratification of the British series, as a guide to the English Tourist; -to which the following may be deemed an introductory paper.

A.

BRITISH GEOLOGY.-No. I. GEOLOGY has engaged the attention of scientific men within the last twenty years, perhaps in a greater degree than any other branch of science that could be named. This may be accounted for principally from the establishment of a Society whose labours are exclusively directed to objects of geological inquiry instead of miscellaneous science, and particularly from the admirable institutions of that Society, by which the united labours of its members are rendered conducive to the formation of a vast mass of valuable evidence supported by facts; in lieu of that mixture of hypothesis and sys

15

tem-building which constituted the labours of many of the geologists of the last century. The advantages resulting from the subdivision of labour were never more illustrated in any department of the arts, than in the branch of science termed Geology. The members of the Geological Society, as fellows of the Royal Society, had not a sufficient arena for the discussion of their favourite branch of science-even if the regulations of the latter were favourable to that mutual interchange of ideas, and unity of purpose, which is essential to the prosperity of all public as well as private societies. The want of which unity of object had been long felt by its more active members, and which has indeed led to the establishment of a number of branch Societies in the scientific world-each of which may, for the reasons before mentioned, now successfully dispute the palm with the parent institution.

The vast establishments in mining and manufactures, which are connected with, or immediately dependent on, geological inquiries, may however be called the basement of that strong interest which Geology has excited in this country of late years. With the exception of part of Saxony, perhaps there is no other country or district in Europe, where the study of the mineral strata is of so much importance as in England; while the great diversity of our mineral products, combined with our insular position, unquestionably give us advantages that cannot be equalled by any part of Germany, or indeed any part of the world. To ascertain the order of the series, the dip, or inclined position of the respective strata, their localities in the several counties, together with the mineral or metallic treasures they contain, must therefore be objects of primary interest, not only to the proprietor of the soil and its substratum, and to the practical miner; but also to the local resident and the intelligent topographer.

It is not, however, necessary for a person to undergo a long course of previous study, in order to arrive at a general or synoptical acquaintance with the strata. The adage" a little learning is a dangerous thing," however applicable to medicine or metaphysics, will not apply to Geology. Mr. Conybeare, in his mas