Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/251

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WARREN'. 231 gested to him as a profession ; his inclination, rather than his finances, directed him to legal pursuits, but one of the little incidents of the place decided his doubts, and started him on a road in which few have enjoyed a more prosperous journey. Dr. Peter Shaw was at this time an eminent physician in London. He was one of the medical attendants upon George the Second, and generally accompanied that sovereign on his excursions to Hanover : to posterity he is better known as the editor of the works of Bacon and of Boyle, and as the author of several publications on medicine and on chemistry. He placed his son at Jesus College, under the care of Warren. The talents of the tutor were not lost upon the father, who finally took a warm interest in his pursuits, in- duced him to commence the study of medicine, and gave him the hand of his daughter Elizabeth, in 1759. His career was equally brilhantand rapid, but his own disposition and attainments were a main ingredient in his success: a hundred indi- viduals might have touched at the same port, and would have remained wind-bound for life : but Warren combined nearly all the qualities which form not merely the popular, but the great phy- sician. The expression of his countenance was at once amiable and acute, his deportment was po- lished and kind, his knowledge was various, his comprehension was remarkably clear and quick, and unfolded itself to the listener in a prompt, accurate, and lively strain, and in language the most fortunately chosen. In 1762 he took his degree of Doctor of Medicine, which requires a much longer term in the English universities than