Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/395

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Ferriar
389
Ferriar

paralysis, and died at Inverness Terrace, London, 22 Aug. 1880. Ferrey was one of the original members of the Architectural Society, and took an interested part in the formation of the Royal Architectural Museum. In 1839 he became a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was twice vice-president, and at his death one of the oldest members. He contributed many papers to its proceedings, and in 1870 was recommended as the recipient of the royal gold medal. He acted as secretary to the committee of architects in the competition for the houses of parliament, and himself contributed a design. In 1863 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His only literary production is his ‘Recollections of A. N. Welby Pugin and his father, Augustus Pugin,’ a work which modesty induced him to defer publishing until 1861. It gives a faithful and interesting account of the lives of the Pugins, father and son, and presents a valuable history of the ‘Gothic revival in English architecture.’ Ferrey was particularly severe in his denunciation of the increasingly prevalent union of the work of the contractor with the profession of architect. In the ‘Builder’ is published an interesting letter from him, deprecating in pithy terms the evils of the system. His favourite relaxation was music. While in the full tide of professional employment he invented and patented an effective and cheap mode of stamping plaster, which was used in several of the churches erected by him. In private life his good temper and genial humour were conspicuous. With young architects he was always popular. He was survived by a second wife, whom he married in 1872. By his first wife he had two daughters and a son. They also survived him.

[Builder, 4 Sept. 1880, xxxix. 281; Recollections of A. N. Welby Pugin, &c., with Notices of their Works, by Benjamin Ferrey, Architect, F.R.I.B.A., London, 1861; Antiquities of the Priory Church of Christchurch, Hants, &c., by B. Ferrey, the literary part by E. W. Brayley, London, 1834.]

FERRIAR, JOHN (1761–1815), physician, son of the Rev. Alexander Ferriar or Ferrier, and his wife Mary Burn, was born at Oxnam, near Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, on 21 Nov. 1761. After his father's death in 1764 he was taken to the neighbourhood of Alnwick, where his mother married her second husband, Thomas Ilderton. Ferriar studied medicine at Edinburgh, and took his M.D. degree in 1781, the subject of his graduation thesis being ‘De Variola.’ On his marriage to Barbara Gair at Alnwick in 1782, he entered on the practice of his profession at Stockton-on-Tees, but about 1785 removed to Manchester, where he was soon brought into contact with the founders of the Literary and Philosophical Society of that town. The first paper he wrote for the society was ‘Of Popular Illusions, and more particularly of Modern Demonology.’ This was read in 1786, and was followed by an ‘Essay on the Dramatic Works of Massinger,’ which brought him into wide repute, and was afterwards reprinted by Gifford in his edition of ‘Massinger's Works’ (1805). In 1787 he wrote for the society ‘Observations on the Vital Principle,’ and subsequently contributed an ‘Account of an Ancient Monument in Hulne Abbey, Northumberland,’ illustrated by himself; ‘An Argument against the Doctrine of Materialism;’ ‘Comments on Sterne;’ and ‘Conjectures on the Use of the Ancient Terrassed Works at Orton Scarr.’ Some points in his paper on ‘Materialism’ were assailed by Dr. William Tattersall of Liverpool, to whom Ferriar rejoined in a bantering tone. In 1788 he wrote ‘The Puppet Shew: a Didactic Poem,’ and published ‘The Prince of Angola, a Tragedy altered from the play of Oroonoko (by T. Southern), and adapted to the circumstances of the Present Times’ (Manchester, 8vo).

On 8 Oct. 1789 he was appointed to the post of a physician of the Manchester Infirmary. An epidemic fever in the town was the means of drawing public notice to the wretched condition of the dwellings of the working classes, and led Ferriar to take an active and important part in causing the local authorities to pay more attention to sanitary laws. He urged especially the establishment of baths, the shortening of the protracted hours of labour of the factory children, and the closing or cleansing of insanitary dwellings. He was a principal worker in connection with the Manchester board of health, and with the establishment of fever-wards at Stockport.

The first volume of his ‘Medical Histories and Reflections’ was published in 1792, the second in 1795, and the third in 1798. They contained in a clear and simple style valuable discussions of sanitary matters and of cases and observations derived from his hospital practice. A second edition, with additions and omissions, came out in four volumes in 1810–13; and an American reprint was published at Philadelphia in 1816. In the second edition is ‘An Essay on the Medical Properties of the Foxglove,’ which was first issued separately in 1799. He is believed to have aided William Simmons in an acrimonious medical controversy with Dr. Hull in 1798–9, and to have helped Sir G. Philips in his