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GARTH.

SAMUEL GART H was of a good

family in Yorkshire, and from fome school in his own country became a student at Peterhouse in Cambridge, where he refided till he commenced doctor of phyfick on July the 7th 1691. He was examined before the College at London on March the 12th, 1691-2, and admitted fellow July 26th, 1692. He was foon fo much diftinguished, by his converfation and accomplishments, as to obtain very extenfive practice; and, if a pamphlet of those times may be credited, had the favour and confidence of one party, as Ratcliffe had of the other.

He is always mentioned as a man of benevolence; and it is juft to fuppofe that his defire of helping the helpless, difposed him to fo much zeal for the Difpenfary; an undertaking of which fome account, however short, is proper to be given.

Whether what Temple fays be true, that physicians have had more learning than the other faculties, I will not ftay to enquire; but, I believe, every man has found in phyficians great liberality, and dignity of fentiment, very prompt effufion of beneficence, and willingness to exert a lucrative art, where

there

there is no hope of lucre. Agreeably to this character, the college of phyficians, in July 1687, published an edict, requiring all the fellows, candidates, and licentiates, to give gratuitous advice to the neighbouring poor.

This edict was fent to the Court of Aldermen; and a queftion being made to whom the appellation of the poor fhould be extended, the College answered, that it fhould be fufficient to bring a teftimonial from a clergyman officiating in the parish where the patient refided.

After a year's experience, the phyficians found their charity fruftrated by fome malignant oppofition, and made to a great degree vain by the high price of phyfick; they therefore voted, in Auguft 1688, that the laboratory of the College fhould be accommodated to the preparation of medicines, and another room prepared for their reception; and that the contributers to the expence fhould manage the charity,

It was now expected that the Apothecaries would have undertaken the care of providing medicines; but they took another course. Thinking the whole design pernicious to their intereft, they endeavoured to raise a faction against it in the College, and found some phyficians mean enough to folicit their patronage, by betraying to them the counfels of the College. The greater part, however, enforced by a new edict in 1694, the former order of 1687, and fent it to the mayor and aldermen, who appointed a committee to treat with the College, and fettle the mode of adminiftering the Charity.

It was defired by the aldermen, that the testimonials of churchwardens and overfeers fhould be admitted; and that all hired fervants, and all apprentices to handicraftsmen, fhould be confidered as poor. This likewife was granted by the College.

It was then confidered who fhould diftribute the medicines, and who fhould fettle their prices. The phyficians procured fome apothecaries to undertake the difpenfation, and offered that the warden and company of the apothecaries fhould adjust the price. This offer was rejected; and the apothecaries who had engaged to affift the charity were confidered as traytors to the company, threatened with the impofition of troublefome offices, and deterred from the performance of their engagements. The apothecaries ventured upon publick oppofition, and prefented a kind of remonstrance against the defign to the committee of the city, which the physicians condefcended to confute: and at laft the traders feem to have prevailed among the fons of trade; for the propofal of the college having been confidered, a paper of approbation was drawn up, but poftponed and forgotten.

The phyficians ftill perfifted; and in 1696 a fubfcription was raised by themselves, according to an agreement prefixed to the Difpenfary. The poor were for a time fupplied with medicines; for how long a time, I know not. The medicinal charity, like others, began with ardour, but foon remitted, and at laft died gradually away.

About the time of the fubfcription begins the action of the Difpenfary.

The poem, as

its fubject was prefent and popular, co-operated with paffions and prejudices then preva→ lent, and with such auxiliaries to its intrinfick merit, was univerfally and liberally applauded. It was on the side of charity against the intrigues of intereft, and of regular learning against licentious ufurpation of medical authority, and was therefore naturally favoured by those who read and can judge of poetry.

In 1697, Garth spoke that which is now called the Harveian Oration; which the authors of the Biographia mention with more praise than the paffage quoted in their notes will fully juftify. Garth, fpeaking of the mischiefs done by quacks, has thefe expreffions: "Non tamen telis vulnerat ista agyr"tarum colluvies, fed fed theriacâ quadam

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magis perniciofa, non pyrio, fed pulvere "nefcio quo exotico certat, non globulis plumbeis, fed pilulis æque lethalibus interficit." This was certainly thought fine by the author, and is still admired by his biographer. In October 1702 he became one of the cenfors of the College.

Garth, being an active and zealous Whig, was a member of the Kit-cat club, and by confequence familiarly known to all the great men of that denomination. In 1710, when the government fell into other hands, he writ to lord Godolphin, on his difmiffion, a short poem, which was criticifed in the Examiner, and fo fuccefsfully either defended or excufed by Mr. Addison, that, for the fake of the vindication, it ought to be preserved.

At the acceffion of the prefent Family his merits were acknowledged and rewarded. He

was

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