Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/376

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BAI
344
BAI

1791, arrived at Bengal as a cadet in the service of the East India Company. He speedily became distinguished for his knowledge of the Oriental languages, and was in 1797 employed by Lord Teignmouth to translate from the Arabic a work on Mahommedan law. He was also appointed professor of the Arabic and Persian languages, and of Mahommedan law in the newly-established college of Fort-William. Soon after the outbreak of the Mahratta war, he entered on active service, and held for several years the difficult position of political agent in the important province of Bundlecund. His duties there were so well discharged, that the governor-general declared that "the British authority in Bundlecund was alone preserved by his fortitude, ability, and influence," and he was at last successful in transferring the whole of that territory to the British power. He speedily rose in the army, and on his return to England in 1818, he had attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1820 he entered parliament as the representative of his native burgh, and in 1823 became a director of the East India Company. He died in 1833.—J. B.

BAILLIE, Matthew, a distinguished British physician and anatomist. He was born on the 29th of October, 1761, at Shotts in Lanarkshire. At the time of his birth, his father was minister of Shotts, but he subsequently removed to Bothwell, and afterwards to Hamilton. He left the latter place on being elected professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow. The mother of Dr. Baillie was a sister of the celebrated anatomists and physiologists, William and John Hunter. Young Baillie received his early education at Hamilton, and afterwards at Glasgow. At the latter place he commenced the study of the law, in order to fit him for practising at the bar. This design was, however, set aside by the desire of his uncle William, in London, who promised to do what he could for him, if he followed the medical profession. He accordingly obtained a presentation from Glasgow, of a studentship in Baliol college, Oxford, and commenced his studies in that university in the year 1779. On his way to Oxford he saw his uncle for the first time in London. He spent one year in Oxford, and then went to reside with his uncle in London, spending only so much time at Oxford as enabled him to keep his terms. After working at anatomy with his uncle for two years, he began to assist him by acting in the capacity of demonstrator in the anatomical theatre in Great Windmill Street. In 1783 Dr. Hunter died, and left the use of his splendid museum, library, house, and theatre in Great Windmill Street, to Dr. Baillie for thirty years. He was no sooner put in possession of this munificent gift, than he joined Mr. Cruickshanks in delivering the anatomical lectures in the school. His success as a teacher was equally great with that of his uncle, and although only twenty-four years of age, he found himself surrounded by as large a class as had attended his uncle. He was a clear and fluent lecturer, and possessed that greatest element of all successful teaching, a profound conviction of the importance of his subject to those whom he taught. He spent much of his time in making preparations for his museum, and was probably induced to do this, as that bequeathed by his uncle was destined at the end of thirty years for the university of Glasgow. The museum which he thus accumulated, he bequeathed at his death to the College of Physicians in London. In 1787 he was appointed physician to St. George's hospital, although at that time he had not taken his degree of M.D. He was, however, possessed of the preliminary degree of bachelor of medicine. In 1789 he got his doctor's degree, became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and married Sophia, second daughter of Dr. Denman, the celebrated accoucheur, and father of the late Lord Chief-Justice Denman. With all his successes and advantages, however, he did not get into practice, and it is related of him that he had serious thoughts of removing from the metropolis, where medical merit is too often only recognized at so late a period of a physician's life, that he has but little time left to enjoy it. He, however, persevered, and in 1795 brought out his great work on "The Morbid Anatomy of the Human Body." A second edition of this work was published in 1797, in which he added considerably to its value by an account of the symptoms exhibited during life by those who suffered from the various morbid states of the organs described. In 1799 he published a series of carefully executed engravings, illustrative of the text of his "Morbid Anatomy." These were an exceedingly valuable contribution to the science of pathology, and may be said to have laid the foundations of the modern science of morbid anatomy. He now began to find his practice increase, and as he was never of a strong bodily constitution, he felt it necessary to resign his physiciancy to St. George's hospital, and to give up his lectures at the anatomical school. This took place in 1799. His complete success in practice, however, did not occur till after the death of Dr. Pitcairn, who was president of the College of Physicians. During the illness of the latter, he recommended Dr. Baillie in his place, and on his death, Baillie naturally succeeded to his practice. He not only succeeded Dr. Pitcairn in his practice, but also in his position of president of the Royal College of Physicians. He now removed from Windmill Street to Grosvenor Street. Here he continued to practise his profession till his death, which took place on the 23rd of September, 1823. In the spring of this year, he contracted an inflammation of the wind-pipe, which, although he retired from London to Tunbridge Wells, continued to increase, and ultimately caused his death, which took place on an estate he had purchased in Gloucestershire. In his will he directed that 150 copies of his introductory lectures to his anatomical classes, and his Gulstonian lectures on the nervous system, delivered at the College of Physicians in 1794, should be printed and published. Dr. Baillie was frequently called upon to attend the royal family. He was physician to George III. for ten years, and the medical attendant of the Princess Amelia, and the Princess Charlotte of Wales. Dr. Baillie was not only a distinguished physician, but the influence of his teaching, writing, and character, exercised a great influence on the medical profession of this country. The habit of expressing himself with facility he had acquired by his long practice in the lecture-room. He was of an irritable disposition, but had great power of self-control. When in full practice, however, the demands of his fanciful patients were sometimes too much for him. After spending some time one day with a nervous lady, who was nevertheless going to the opera in the evening, she called out on the top of the stairs, "And may I eat some oysters, doctor?" On which he exclaimed, "Yes, madam, shells and all." Personally he was of middle stature and slight form, with a sagacious penetrating countenance. There is a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey.—(Gold-Headed Cane; Wardrop's edition of Baillie's Works.)—E. L.

BAILLIE, Robert, of Jerviswood, an eminent Scottish patriot in the reign of Charles II. The exact time of his birth is uncertain. His father, George Baillie, was a cadet, of the ancient family of Baillie of Lamington in Lanarkshire. Robert married a daughter of the celebrated Johnston of Warriston, and became closely connected with the presbyterian party, and consequently an object of suspicion and dislike on the part of the duke of Lauderdale and his profligate minions, who then misgoverned Scotland. The first incident that brought Baillie into collision with the government, was his interference on behalf of his brother-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Kirkton, the author of the well-known History of the Church. An infamous person of the name of Carstairs, who was employed by Archbishop Sharp as a spy, to discover the frequenters of conventicles, one day in June, 1676, inveigled Kirkton into a house near the Edinburgh tolbooth, and, under the pretext of a warrant from the council, endeavoured by threats, and by presenting a pistol to his breast, to extort money for his release. Baillie having discovered the detention of his brother-in-law, accompanied by some friends, burst open the door of the house and released him. Carstairs complained to Sharp, his patron, of this interference, and the archbishop, on the plea that if his creature was not supported by the government, no one would afterwards give information against the presbyterians, antedated a warrant for Kirkton's arrest, and having obtained the signatures of nine councillors to it, delivered it to Carstairs. Supported by the forged document, this infamous person procured the condemnation of Baillie and his friends for a tumult against the government. The former was ordered to be imprisoned for a year, and to be fined in £500; the latter in smaller sums, and to be imprisoned till then fines should be paid. Baillie, however, in consequence of the general indignation which this scandalous sentence excited, was released at the end of four months, on payment of one half of his fine to Carstairs. But the duke of Hamilton, the earls of Morton. Dumfries, Kincardine, and Lords Cochrane and Primrose, were dismissed from the council for their opposition to the government on this occasion. During the next seven years, Mr. Baillie seems to have lived in strict privacy; but in 1683 he is