it is of primary consequence to know the circumstance which occasions the one to differ in its nature from the other, as the remedies beneficial in asthma, would probably be fatal in peripneumony.

ments.

An attempt, therefore, to banish nosology (derived from repeated and accurate investigations of the nature .and causes of diseases) from medical studies, and to substitute in its place, vague and uncertain rules, is certainly a very extraordinary proceeding in a physician and teacher of Doctor Rush's distinguished abilities and acquireFor though nosology will not teach us how to cure diseases, it will assist us very much in acquiring the knowledge that will. It is the province of nosology to collect and arrange all diseases of the same nature, that depend upon the same proximate cause, and which experience teaches require similar remedies, under the same class, order, genus, and species, and to mark the characters or signs by which the diseases of different classes are distinguished from those of every other. By the rules of nosology, the student very soon learns to distinguish diseases of a different nature, and which consequently require different kinds of remedies, from each other; whereas, if he adopts the rules of the Brunonian system, as modified and explained by Dr. Rush, he will, till he has by long practice and attentive observation acquired a portion of the doctor's sagacity, find himself perpetually at a loss in accommodating his practice to those rules; for no man, except by chance, can direct his remedies with unerring aim, who takes uncertain rules for his guide.

(To be concluded in our next.)

AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE DOCTOR JOHN BARD.

With an Engraving, from an Original Painting.

We have great pleasure in presenting that class of our readers, whose declining years have lessened the number of their enjoyments, with an appropriate gratification; the portrait of a fellow-citizen, whom many of the m will recollect with unfeigned affection, and all who knew him with that respect and esteem which useful talents, exercised with urbanity, benevol ence, and integrity, will always command.

If the life of Dr. John Bard furnishes few anecdotes that amuse or surprise, it affords at least one useful lesson; that persevering industry and inflexible integrity, will surmount great obstacles, and conduct a man to honourable distinction and envied eminence, from under the pressure of great and early discouragements. His father, who was a refugee from the tyranny of Lewis the 14th, at first to London, was sent thence by an uncle to this country, on a mercantile speculation but ill suited to his genius, and consequently unsuccessful. He therefore abandoned merchandize, and retired to Burlington, in NewJersey, where having been appointed a judge of the supreme court, and one of the governor's council, he died at an early age, leaving his widow, with a very moderate income, to support and educate a young family of seven children, to which she devoted herself with so much.

good sense and pious zeal, that she lived to see them all respectably established.

JOHN, her third son, was sent to Philadelphia, and introduced, for it could only be called an introduction, to the rudiments of a polite and classical education, under the best masters then to be procured. In one circumstance he was fortunate; his Latin teacher was a Scotch gentleman, by the name of Annan, who, at the same time that his contracted circumstances compelled him to teach a grammar school for his support, by his learning and politeness commanded the respect, and enjoyed the society of the governor and principal gentlemen of that city. But Doctor Bard possessed the advantages of this situation only for a very few years, and at the age of fourteen or fifteen was, according to the custom of that day, bound apprentice to Mr. Kearsly, an English surgeon, of good talents, but of so unhappy a temper, that his presence banished cheerfulness from his family. He treated his pupils with great rigour, and subjected them to the most menial employments; to which, Doctor Bard has been often heard to say, he would never have submitted, but from the apprehension of giving pain to his excellent mother, and the encouragement he received from the kindness of her particular friend, Mrs. Kearsly, of whom he always spoke in terms of the warmest gratitude, affection and respect. Under such circumstances, he persevered to the end of seven tedious years, stealing his hours of study from sleep, after the family had retired to rest, and before they arose from their beds.

Before he was released from this thraldom, he became acquainted with Doctor Franklin, of kindred mind, and

no unequal fortune; whose friendship and cheerfulness brightened his leisure hours, whose example roused, and whose indefatigable industry stimulated his exertions and perseverance.

This early intimacy was ripened by a similarity of disposition into a lasting friendship, which ended only with their lives, and which Dr. Franklin reminded him in a letter, not long before his death, " had never been obscured by the slightest shade.”

He at first settled in his profession in Philadelphia, and as soon as he thought himself justified by his prospect in business, married a niece of Mrs. Kearsly, like himself the descendant of a refugee, and almost equally destitute of the gifts of fortune. But after practising in that city about five or six years, he was induced, by the death of Doctor Dubois and Doctor Dupie, who died in NewYork of the yellow fever about the year 1742 or 3, to remove to that city; where, by the urbanity of his manners his professional talents, and the charms of his conversation, which was enlivened by a constant flow of cheerfulenriched by sound sense, and adorned by a very considerable fund of anecdote, he so effectually recommended himself to the notice and friendship of the most respectable families, that he was almost immediately introduced into a valuable scene of business, and very soon arrived at the first rank in his profession. Nor did he lose their friendship or yield his professional eminence through a long life of more than fourscore years.

ness,

From the confined circumstances of his education, Doctor Bard was neither classically nor professionally a learn

ed man; but he possessed a lively fancy, a sound judgment, and a correct taste. He read with great delight the best authors, particularly the poets of his own language; and whatever he read and admired, he made so completely his own, that he could recal it almost at pleasure to his memory, and would frequently surprise and delight his friends by long and appropriate quotations from authors he had not seen for very many years. In his profession he read all the best authors of his day; but his studies were rather select than general. Sydenham and Huxham were his favourites. He formed himself their plan, and was so familiar with their histories of diseases, and their rules of practice, that he applied them with great ease and readiness, and acquired from them a correct and happy talent in discriminating diseases, and such sound principles of practice, as rendered his own eminently successful.

upon

About the year 1759, the city of New-York was alarmed by the arrival of a ship from Amsterdam, freighted for the transportation of Palatines, among whom a malignant fever had broken out during the passage, and destroyed a great number. On this occasion, Doctor Bard was employed by the corporation to take proper measures to prevent the disease from spreading. The sick were quartered at a distance from the city; but notwithstanding every attention, many of the passengers perished; and although the disease was confined within the limits of the hospital, it now communicated to every nurse and assistant, Doctor Bard only escaping. He immediately drew up a memorial, in which he represented the expediency of providing a pest-house, against similar occasions, which was immediately effected by the purchase of