Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/261

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BAILLIE. 241 more distressing, and in a few minutes the patient was dead. But to return to Baillie, his engagements in- creased so rapidly, after the first secession of Pit- cairn from London, that in 1799, after having performed the duties of physician to St. George's Hospital during thirteen years, he resigned that ap- pointment, gave up his anatomical lectures also, and, removing to Grosvenor-street, devoted himself entirely to general practice. Unfortunately the brilliant success of his career did not add much to his own happiness ; it was the means of rapidly unhinging his constitution, and of chilling both the elasticity and the tranquillity of mind which are only to be found when the body is in health. He does not seem to have been sufficiently early aware, that those who lead a life of constant un- varying devotion to one pursuit, gradually lose their relish for all other occupations, and become even indifferent to any relaxation. Medical men often painfully evince the truth of this remark. Even the taste which he had acquired in his youth for rural scenery and pursuits did not survive to abstract or to charm him at the time when for- tune had made him owner of a large domain ; and when retirement to the country became necessary to his health, he did not find in its haunts the repose which those alone enjoy, who, in the midst of their busiest toils, have endeavoured to cherish and to keep alive a relish for the beauties of nature, of art, or of literature. Baillie was physician extraordinary to the late king, and physician in ordinary to the Princess Charlotte. In 1810 he attended on the Princess R