a, or Some Account of the Ancient and Modern State of Egypt, as obtained in the years 1801 and 1802, by William Hamilton, F. A. S." "This work," says the Edinburgh .Review, "will be found an excellent supplement to the more elaborate and costly work of Denon. His style is in general simple and unaffected; and therefore, loses nothing, in our opinion, when compared with that of some of the travellers who have gone before him." Sir William Hamilton died in April, 1803, in the 72nd year of his age. His death deprived the world of two great works which he hoped to have lived to prepare, on the subject of the museum of Portici.
HAMILTON, William, a celebrated surgeon, and lecturer on anatomy and chemistry in the university of Glasgow. This meritorious individual was unfortunately cut off from the world too early in life, and too suddenly, to be enabled to give to the world those works on his favourite science, on which he might have founded his fame, and the circle of his influence and renown was hardly so extensive as to attract the attention of posterity; but a tribute to his memory, in the form of a memoir of his life, and remarks on his professional acquirements, read by his friend professor Cleghorn to the Royal Society of Edinburgh,[1] and inserted in the transactions of that eminent body, justifies us in enumerating him among distinguished Scotsmen. William Hamilton was born in Glasgow, on the 31st July, 1758. His father was Thomas Hamilton, a respectable surgeon in Glasgow, and professor of anatomy and botany in that university; and his mother, daughter to Mr Anderson, professor of church history in the same institution. He followed the usual course of instruction in the grammar school and college of his native city, from which latter he took the degree of master of arts in 1775, at the age of seventeen. Being supposed to show an early predilection for the medical profession, he proceeded to Edinburgh, then at the height of its fame as a school for that science, where he studied under Cullen and Black, the early friends of his father. The bad health of his father recalled the young physician after two sessions spent in Edinburgh, and both proceeded on a tour to Bath, and thence to London, where the son was left to pursue his studies, with such an introduction to the notice of Dr William Hunter, as a schoolfellow acquaintanceship between his father and that distinguished man warranted. The prudence, carefulness, and regularity of the young man's conduct, while surrounded by the splendour and temptation of the metropolis, have been commended by his friends ; these praiseworthy qualities, joined to a quick perception on professional subjects, and an anxiety to perfect himself in that branch of his profession which calls for the greatest zeal and enthusiasm on the part of the medical student, attracted the attention of his observing friend. He was requested to take up his residence in Dr Hunter's house, and finally was trusted with the important charge of the dissecting room, a valuable, and probably a delightful duty. He seems to have secured the good opinion he had gained, by his performance of this arduous and important function. "I see and hear much of him," says Dr Hunter, in his correspondence with the young man's father, "and every body regards him as sensible, diligent, sober, and of amiable dispositions." "From being a favourite with every body, he has commanded every opportunity for improvement, which this great town afforded, during his stay here ; for every body has been eager to oblige and encourage him. I can depend so much on him, in every way, that if any opportunity should offer of serving him, whatever may be in my power, I shall consider as doing a real pleasure to myself." Such were the character and prospects of one, who, it is to be feared, was then nourishing by too intense study the seeds of dissolution in a naturally feeble constitution. Soon after, the father's state of health
- ↑ Vol. iv. p. 35, read 6th November, 1792.
