Lives of the Most Eminent Literary Sciantific Men of Great Britain; English Poets (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839. Excerpt: ... MARK AKENSIDE. (1721--1770.) Mark Akenside was born on the 9th of November, 1721, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where his father followed the humble business of a butcher. The meanness of his origin is said to have given him so much uneasiness in after life, that he tried every means in his power to conceal it from his friends; but unfortunately he was perpetually reminded of it himself by an awkward halt in his gait, occasioned by the falling of a cleaver on his foot. He received the rudiments of his education at the free grammar school of his native town, and was afterwards removed to an academy kept by a Mr. Wilson. His friends and relatives being principally of the Presbyterian persuasion, he was sent at eighteen years of age to the university of Edinburgh, for the purpose of becoming a dissenting clergyman, and the expenses of his collegiate course were discharged from a fund subscribed for such objects by the general body of dissenters. After spending one winter in the requisite preparatory studies, he altered his professional destination, and devoted himself to physic; conscientiously repaying to the fund at a subsequent period the monies that had been expended upon him with a view to the design he thus voluntarily abandoned. He remained three years at Edinburgh, then removed to Leyden, where he studied for two years more, and obtained the degree of M.D. on the 16th of May, 1744. In a medical thesis which he was required to write, as one of the exercises at the examination for his degree, he is said to have displayed considerable ability and judgment by attacking some opinions of Leeuwenhoeck and others, at that time generally received, but now discarded by the best physicians and philosophers; and boldly proposing an hypothesis, which has since been rec...