empire. His principal work, "De re Rustica," addressed to Publius Silvinus, is in twelve books, and treats not only of agriculture proper, but of the management of animals, poultry, and bees. The last edition is Schneider's, Lips. 1794. The editio princeps was printed by Nicolas Janson at Venice in 1472. A genus of plants, called Columellia, has been named after him.—F. M. W.
COLVILLE, John, who figured in the turbulent and factious contests which distracted Scotland during the sixteenth century, was a member of the family of Colville, of East Wemyss in Fife. He was for some time minister of Kilbride and chantor of Glasgow; but, abandoning the clerical profession, he got introduced to court about the year 1578, and obtained the office of master of requests. He joined the party of nobles who were engaged in the raid of Ruthven, and was sent by them as their ambassador to Queen Elizabeth. For his connection with this plot he was imprisoned when King James recovered his liberty, but his offences appear to have been speedily pardoned; for, in 1587, he was appointed by the king a lord of session in the room of his uncle, Alexander Colville. We find him next associated with the notorious earl of Bothwell in his attempts to seize the king in Holyrood, and he was ultimately obliged, along with the earl, to seek refuge in France. He endeavoured, by the publication of a treatise called "The Palinode," and by various other arts, to ingratiate himself with the king, and to obtain his permission to return home; but having entirely failed in his object, he embraced the Roman catholic faith, and wrote several controversial treatises against the protestant religion. Colville died in 1607, while on a pilgrimage to Rome.—J. T.
COMBE, Dr. Andrew, a distinguished physician and writer on physiology, younger brother of George Combe, was born in Edinburgh, October 27, 1797. He was educated in his early years chiefly under the superintendence of his brother George, who has written a life of him well worthy of perusal. Having chosen the medical profession, he graduated at Edinburgh, and visited Paris for the prosecution of his studies. In 1823 he began medical practice in Edinburgh. Great delicacy of health, produced by a pulmonary disease, took him frequently from his work to seek renewed health in warmer climates, so that his career as a physician was much interrupted. In 1836 he was appointed consulting physician to the king of the Belgians. As early as 1818 he had, like his brother George, given his attention to phrenology, and become a convert to it, and for many years continued to advocate its doctrines through the Phrenological Journal. He was also a distinguished writer on general scientific and medical subjects. His best known works are his "Principles of Physiology applied to Health and Education," his "Physiology of Digestion," and his treatise on "Physiological and Moral Management of Infancy." His "Digestion" is, perhaps, the most original of the three. These works were written in the intervals of comparative freedom he enjoyed from the malady which he knew would one day carry him off. Dr. Combe was a singularly amiable man, remarkably free from the foibles and prejudices of invalids. His writings have done in a great measure for the human body, what those of Locke did for the mind. He explained the laws of physiology, rather than the structure of organs, and was one of the first to apply the great principles of human physiology to the prevention of disease and the prolonging of human life. His death, which was long expected, took place in Edinburgh on the 9th of August, 1847.—E. L.
COMBE, Charles, a learned physician, born in London in 1743, and died in 1817. He was a contemporary of Dr. Parr and Sir William Jones at Harrow. On leaving that school he returned home, and, under his father's direction, applied himself both to the study and practice of medicine. In 1768 the father died, and young Combe succeeded to his practice. He became a member of the Society of Antiquaries in 1771, and in 1776 was nominated a fellow of the Royal Society. He graduated in 1783, and soon after became physician-extraordinary to the British Lying-in-hospital in Bourbon street. Combe formed a splendid collection of Greek and Roman medals and coins, to the study of which, in connection with the history of ancient customs, he devoted much of his attention. He also published, in concert with the Rev. Henry Homer, an edition of Horace, with notes—a performance which was subjected to the adverse criticism of Dr. Parr.—R. M., A.
COMBE, George, brother of Dr. Andrew Combe, born in Edinburgh in 1788; died near London in 1858. Few thinkers of the present age have exercised so wide an influence as Mr. Combe. Of one of his works, no fewer than one hundred thousand copies have been circulated in this country alone. The number of "The Constitution of Man" sold in America, must be prodigious; and it has been translated into most of our European languages. The exquisite clearness of its style renders the meaning of its every sentence patent to any ordinary man; and its subject-matter has been universally recognized as of immediate bearing on human happiness. We shall briefly sketch the nature of Mr. Combe's character and philosophy. In his portraiture of the early years of his brother, he has virtually told the story of his own—a story that may be repeated, although with different results, concerning many an old Scottish family. His father—in tolerable circumstances—seems yet to have been straitened by the unusual number of his children (seventeen); and this, conjoined with the stern influences of an ultra-Calvinism not uncommon in those days, availed to banish ease and freedom from the household. While treasuring the memories, and fondly remembering the virtues of their parents, both brothers appear to have looked back on the sad constraint at Livingstone Yards, as something against which they could never warn parents enough; and it is not improbable that the recollection gave a peculiar stimulus to their long efforts on behalf of a truer and more benign treatment of the young. On finally quitting home, George entered the profession of the law, and became writer to the signet; but, although diligent and successful in his profession, his keen and active intellect unceasingly busied itself with higher inquiries. Dissatisfied with formal or dogmatic Calvinism, and feeling as little solidity in the metaphysics of the time—although expounded in the most winning manner by Dugald Stewart—his mind seems to have been ever turning to the question—Where can a doctrine of practical life be found? "Give me a philosophy that shall not pass the ear as mere sounds, but directly and immediately guide and explain actions, and so lead to effective results." About this period Spurzheim lectured in Edinburgh. Mr. Combe followed him, examined with characteristic caution and care the facts adduced by the lecturer, and was convinced by them. How earnestly and steadily he clung to phrenology, is known by every one who has heard of his name. He was no mere disciple of Spurzheim or Gall, or any other master: his ultimate system was his own; and the great work in which he finally expounded that system, is replete with sketches of character and of mental peculiarities and actions, from which any inquirer, phrenologist or not, may obtain large instruction. As to the subject itself, we do not of course discuss it here; it may be stated, nevertheless, that although not in Mr. Combe's favourite form, all recent physiology is unequivocally pointing to a closest dependence of mental action on the agency of physical conformation and processes. Having adopted phrenology as his fundamental philosophy, Mr. Combe's attention was naturally powerfully drawn to the influence of external laws—or rather the laws of what we term the material world—on human well-being; and out of his speculations in this direction a philosophy sprang much wider and more catholic than any phrenology or special physiological theory. The proposition on which that philosophy rests is so manifest and unquestionable that few at present deny it, whether they adopt its applications or not. It is not very long ago since a fancied opposition between matter, or the world, and spirit, formed the virtual basis of the greater part of our highest teaching. Mr. Combe said, there is no opposition; on the contrary there is very harmony. By God's providence we are placed in the midst of a material universe ever acting upon us, and governed by a perfect order. We cannot change that universe, therefore we must place ourselves in harmony with it: we must ascertain and recognize its laws, and submit ourselves in willing obedience to their behests. This is the grand and sole thesis of the "Constitution of Man;" but it is not laid down as a mere abstraction in that remarkable volume. Mr. Combe pursues it through momentous consequences, and expounds principles which have since been adopted as the ground of much valuable and important legislation. It is certainly no marvel that the volume referred to has been a favourite with the intelligent masses of this country. First of all accessible works, it opened before them a practical way towards the amelioration of their condition; showing how, independently of either social or political change, they could largely and efficiently help themselves. The essay
