and forgotten soon after death. Dr. Combe was an able practitioner, a profound scholar, considering that he had another department which he never neglected, and, what is most to the purpose, a most amiable and candid man. By the history of his life, the materials for which, we presume, were furnished by himself, it appears that, though, in the year 1771, he was thought worthy of a seat with the Society of Antiquaries, and, five years after, was honoured with the distinction of F.R.S.; yet, that he had not a degree in physic till 1784, when he probably owed the title to his executorship and trusteeship of Dr. W. Hunter's Museum, which, it is well known, was, by the Doctor's testament, to be removed to the University of Glasgow at the expiration of thirty years after his death.

By the above account it seems to follow that Dr. Combe continued the practice of pharmacy till after his 40th year, with a business prepared to his hands, and with an education and means of improvement far greater than most of his competitors. The drudgery of pharmacy was certainly ill suited to such acquirements; and it is not improbable that the world considered him rather as a scholar and a numismatist than as a physician. At the same time, other professed scholars might not be as willing as the meek Mr. Henry Homer to admit a physician to all the honours, which are generally the more esteemed as they are the more rare. Hence a trifling inaccuracy in that part of the edition of Horace which was printed after the death of Henry Homer gave the critics an opportunity of exulting, which was at length re-echoed with tenfold force in the "Pursuits of Literature.”

Whatever may have been the cause, it is certain this truly valuable man died poor, his books being sold for the benefit of his creditors, and sold in a manner which added a new pang to those who felt for the deceased, and for medical science. It redounds much to his credit that, under all his difficulties, he educated his children in such a way as to render them ornaments to that cirele in which they move. Mr. Taylor Combe, by the employments be has filled, and the works he has published at so early a period of life, already reflects on the memory of his parent that honour to which he was justly entitled during life.

DR. WELLS, Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. (From the same.)

Even in the most aristocratical bodies, we find the spirit of freedom burst forth at times beyond restraint, whenever restriction is carried too far. The laws of the College are certainly too rigid; but the administration is generally conducted with prudence, and without regard to their letter. Frequent, however, have been the disputes between the Fellows and Licentiates, respecting their rights; and on the last of these memorable occasions, the subject of the present memoir shewed himself the advocate of his own and his brethren's cause.

Dr. Wells is a native of America, of Scots extraction, but was educated chiefly in this country. Edinburgh was the university at which he acquired his professional learning, and took his degree." He became a Licentiate of the College, and then settled in the metropolis, where he has since continued to practise. With an independence above his wants, and naturally of a philosophic turn of mind, he has never shewn himself over anxious in the pursuit of business.

Though mild and inoffensive in his manner and character, what, perhaps, he would have overlooked in his own person, he stepped forth to vindicate in the cause of another; and his publication in favour of Dr. Stanger does credit to his pen, and to the cause in which it was employed.

Y

The restrictions of the College, at this period, on the Licentiates, were uncommonly severe, and not suited to that liberality which should distinguish a learned body. Dr. Stanger's application to the College being refused, an application was made on the subject of its powers to the Court of King's Bench. A committee of Licentiates was appointed to manage it, of which Dr. Wells was one, in conjunction with Dr. Cooke and Dr. Stanger; and the subject was ably handled by him, in a publication, which, for sound argument, liberal sentiments, and correct style, does him high credit. The business was ended by concessions on the part of the College, which have now set it fully at rest. Since that time, Dr. Wells has not particularly pressed himself on public notice, fond of that literary retirement, and those scientific pursuits, so pleasing to a culti vated mind.

On the vacancy of Physician to the Honourable East India Company, by the death of the late Dr. Hunter, he stood a candidate; but was out-voted by Dr. Dick, from a principle then laid down by the Company, that this appointment should be filled by one of their own servants, as more conversant with that particular line of practice it was fit their surgeons should be made acquainted with. This, however, was taking the office out of the regular channel in which it had hitherto flowed, and considered rather as a reflection on the College at the time.

Dr. Wells has published several papers in the Phil. Trans. on philosophical subjects, and lately a work upon Dew. He is also the author of several useful papers on medicine, to be found in the Transactions of a Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge.

** Dr. W. was one of the refugees from America in consequence of the revolution. His talents are too well known to require any encomium. His love of order, and accuracy in tracing facts, shone in all his philosophical inquiries; but in none more than his treatises on Vision, and his researches into the causes of Dew. It is not a little remarkable that one so much attached to the existing order of things as to give up every thing for maintaining royalty, should be the most zealous in resisting the long-established privileges of the

Royal

Royal College of Physicians. It certainly very much resembles what is often said, that the only wish of zealots is to acquire those emoluments they see others possess, or to extinguish them altogether. It is hardly possible to believe, that, had Dr. W. been educated at Oxford or Cambridge, he would not have been as devoted to the privileges of his Alma Mater, as he proved to the royal cause. 'These remarks will be rather considered as directed to the human character than to Dr. Wells, the goodness of whose intentions are universally admitted. They may, however, teach us all a little moderation in the opinions we are apt too hastily to form of others. They may teach us, before we engage in any warm opposition, to place ourselves in the situation of those we oppose; and it would be well also if the party in power would reflect with how much more ease they would retain that power if tempered with a liberality by which they might reign without seeming to reign. In a word, if all men would endeavour to soften the intercourse with each other, and to do unto others as they wish they should do unto them.

Biographical Account of ABRAHAM GOTTLOB WERNER, late Professor of Mineralogy at Frieberg.

Abraham Gottlob Werner was born on the 25th of September, 1750. His father, who was inspector of an iron-work at Wehrau, on the Queiss, in Upper Lusatia, intended him from his early youth for a similar vocation. Even while at the university, he employed himself on the doctrine of the external characteristics of fossils, in which a singular quickness of perception was of great use to him; and published there, in the year 1774, the well-known work (on the external characteristics of fossils) which is still considered as the basis of his whole oryktognosis, but of which he could never be induced to print a new and enlarged edition, because he feared disputes, and had not in fact concluded his researches. Soon after he was invited to Frieberg, to have the care of the cabinet of natural history there, and to read lectures upon it. Here his mind, which was early exercised in observation and classification, found the most welcome materials. Here, daily extending the bounds of his science, and supporting its foundation by the surest external distinctive marks, he formed that system which,-afterwards embracing also the geognosis which was peculiarly his own, and forming an intimate connexion with all branches of the art of mining,-gradually surmounted all opposition, and raised its inventor to the rank of the creator of a new mineralogy, which might be supported and extended, but not rendered useless, by the crystallographic theory of Haiiy, and the chemical theory of Vauquelin and others.

His peculiar talent for observation was animated by the most lively fancy, assisted by the most extensive reading in every branch of knowledge connected with his own, and excited by daily intercourse with ingenious travellers and foreigners, who chiefly visited Frieberg on Werner's account. (We may instance only the Englishman Hawkins.) The

classification

classification in genera and species, and for the most part ingenous appellations of minerals down to the newest egron, is peculiarly his. "Werner," says Leonhard, in his eloquent lecture on the state of mineralogy, "was for the doctrine of the recognition of simple fossils, embracing with uncommon ingenuity all the experience of his age, what Winckelmann had been to the arts. What, before him, were all the endeavours of Wallerius and Linnæus!" How soon was he obliged to give up Cronstedt, who is no where satisfactory! Only a too scrupulous conscience prevented him from publishing the oryktognostical [fossilological] tables, which have been finished, and quite ready for the press these four years. Werner sustained an obstinate, but for that reason the more honourable contest with the volcanists. Now, no well-informed person will consider the basalt and other fleetz mountains as of volcanic origin. Werner's theory of the older and newer formation of mountains, by the waters, stands immoveable; and a satisfactory link between them is afforded in the mountains of the interval of transition. Even the new chemical discoveries of the kalimetals may be made to accord with it. Another science, Mining, on which Werner used also to lecture, was rendered extremely clear to the attentive scholar, by his luminous explanation, and by the reduction of the most complicated machinery to the most simple propositions, at the same time drawing all the figures on his table. Indefatigable application, insatiable thirst of knowledge, enriched his retentive memory with every thing that history and philology, in the most extensive sense, can offer to the attentive inquirer. No science was foreign to him, but all served as a basis to his studies, which were constantly directed to natural philosophy, and the knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants. He always advanced before his age, and often knew what others only presumed.

After 1779 and 1780, when he first lectured on oryktognosis and geognosis, at Frieberg, he was heard with gratitude by scholars from all parts of Europe. Never contented with what was discovered, always seeking something new, he rather formed scholars who wrote than wrote himself. Many manuscripts, almost wholly ready for the press, are included in his fine library, with a collection of coins and inanuscripts bequeathed on the day of his death to the Mineralogical Academy, for 5000 crowns.

In his lectures he had only heads of the subject before him, and used to abandon himself, as he was accustomed to say, to the inspiration of his mineralogical muse; and, when his spirit hovered over the waters and the strata, he often became animated with lofty enthusiasm. But he caused his lectures to be written out by approved scholars; and by revising himself what they had thus written after him, made it, properly speaking, a manuscript. A great many parts of his lectures have been made public by others, among which may be reckoned what Audic, at Brunn in Moravia, has published in the vaJuable journal Hesperus. But nothing bears the confirmation of the seal of the master. What is particularly desirable is the publication of his manuscript on Mineralogical Geography (which he only once drew up for a particular lecture), and upon the Literature of Mine

ralogy

ralogy, in which he solved the difficulties of the ancient classic mine, ralogy, and gave incomparable illustrations of Pliny's Natural History. He was like a father to all his scholars, to whom he was a model, not only as a man of science, but as a moral character. Having filled, from the year 1792, a high situation in the Council of the Mines, he had a great share in the direction both of the Mineralogical Academy and of the administration in general.

Two things must be mentioned here with particular honour-the works begun in 1786, to furnish a great part of the deeper mines with water, in order to get water for driving the wheels. This astonishing aqueduct, particularly the artificial canal of Doerrenthal, with its subterraneous bricked channels, already extending above a league, are in the main due to him, though Scheuchler made the plan, and Lampe the calculations. By the continued support of the ever active King of Saxony, this great work still proceeds in the most prosperous manner, The Amalgamation works, twice built by the excellent Charpentier, chief of the Council of the Mines, (the first building was maliciously burnt down,) and for ever secured by most ingenious fire-engines from similar accidents, are indeed unique: a miracle to all who behold them, and a jewel in the crown of the Saxon art of mining, and of the unostentatious energy with which the sovereign of Saxony caused the most expensive un dertakings to be executed in silence. Less known and visited by foreigners, though on it depends the continuation of the mining in Saxony, is this undertaking of canals and aqueducts, which has already cost above half a million of crowns, and on which more than a thousand men are employed. The mineralogical survey and de scription of all Saxony, divided into districts, which has been prose cuted for these twenty years, under scholars of Werner, and includes the forest of Thuringen, and even a part of the Harz, uniting too with the mountains on the frontiers of Bohemia and Silesia, will one day give our country a mineralogical map, which for exactness and extent surpasses what any other country can produce. This too was Werner's work, and was constantly directed by him in the most attentive manner. In his visits to Prague and Vienna, he found means to interest the Austrian government in these mineralogical surveys; and it is to be hoped that the enlightened Bavarian government, as well as the direction of the mines in the Prussian monarchy under Werner's grateful scholars in Berlin and Silesia, will readily contribute to support and complete the great work which Werner so happily set on foot. In England and Scotland excellent mineralogical maps of single counties have lately been published according to Werner's ideas.

His cabinet of minerals, unrivalled in completeness and scientific arrangement, and consisting of above 100,000 specimens, has become, in consideration of a life annuity, the amount of which devolves to the institution itself, the property of the Frieberg Mineralogical Academy. Werner's favourite pupil, Koehler, is appointed inspector of it. Werner had received from England an offer of 50,000 crowns for it. He sold it to his country for 40,000, of which he reserved the interest of 33,000 as an annuity; but made the cond