BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 31
June 1791. Mr. William Graham is still alive (July 1836), being eighty-one
years of age. He resides in Leicestershire, where he is deservedly held in high
estimation,
Dr. James Graham, after having finished his studies in Edinburgh, went to
England, and began business in Pontefract, where, in the year 1770, he married
Miss Mary Pickering, daughter of a gentleman of that place, by whom he had
a son and two daughters. His eldest daughter was married to the late Mr.
Stirling, minister of Dunblane, a very accomplished lady, who is still alive (1837).
The other daughter died in the apartments of the Observatory on the Calton
Hill, of consumption, about four years before her father.
After residing some time in England, Dr. Graham went to America, where he
figured as a philanthropic physician, travelling for the benefit of mankind, to
administer relief, in the most desperate diseases, to patients whose cases had
hitherto puzzled the ordinary practitioners. Having the advantage of a good
person, polite address, and agreeable conversation, he got into the first circles,
particularly in New England, where he made a great deal of money. He
then returned to Britain; and, after making an excursion through England,
during which, accordiiig to his own account, he was eminently successful in
curing many individuals whose cases had been considered desperate, he visited
Scotland, and was employed by people of the first quality, who were tempted
to put themselves under his care by the fascination of his manner and the fame
of his wondrous cures. So popular was he, that he might have settled in Edinburgh,
to great advantage, but he preferred returning to England. He fixed
his abode in the metropolis, where he set on foot one of the most original and
extravagant institutions that could well be figured, the object of which was for
“ preventing barrenness, and propagating a much more strong, beautiful, active,
healthy, wise, and virtuous race of human beings, than the present puny, insignificant,
foolish, peevish, vicious, and nonsensical race of Christians, who quarrel,
fight, bite, devour, and cut one another’s throats about they know not what.”l
The “ Temple of Health,” as he was pleased to term it, was an establishment
of a very extraordinary description, and one in which all the exertions of
the painter and statuary-all the enchantments of vocal and instrumental music
-all powers of electricity and magnetism, were called into operation to enliven
and heighten the scene. In a word, all that could delight the eye or ravish the
ear-all that could please the smell, give poignancy to the taste, or gratify the
touch, were combined to give effect to his scheme-at least such was his own
account.
Of his numerous puffs on the subject, one may be selected by way of a
specimen :-
“TEMPLE OF HEALTH AND HYMEN, PALL-MALL, NEAR THE KING’S PALACE.
“ If there be one human being, rich or poor, male, female, or of the doubtful
gender, in or near this great metropolis of the world, who has not had the
Such are the ipsia8im eerba of one of the Doctor’s advertisements.
