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Kay's Originals Vol. 1

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 61 means he soon waxed warm, and by degrees his imagination became dreadfully excited. Before leaving Edinburgh, he was so miserably reduced in his circumstances as to be committed to prison for debt, where his pupils attended his lectures. His liberation from jail was principally attributable to the exertions of the eccentric but amiable Lord Gardenstone. Shortly after his arrival in London, the peculiarity of his appearance as he moved along-a short, square figure-with an air of dignity, in a black suit, which made the scarlet of his cheeks and nose the more resplendent-attracted the notice of certain '' Chevaliers d'lndustrie," on the look-out for spoil in the street. They addressed him in the dialect of his country: his heart, heavy as it must have been from the precariousness of his situation and distance from his native land, expanded to these agreeable sounds. A conversation ensued, and the parties by common consent adjourned to a tavern. Here the stranger was kindly welcomed to town, and, after the glass had circuIated for a time, something was proposed .by way of amusement-a game at cards or whatever the Doctor might prefer. The Doctor had been too civilly treated to demur ; but his purse was scantily furnished, and it was necessary to quit his new friends in search of a supply. Fortunately he applied to Mr. Murray the bookseller, who speedily enlightened him as to the quality of his companions. A London sharper, of another denomination, afterwards tried to take advantage of the Doctor. This was an ingenious speculator in quack medicines, He thought a composition of the most powerful st,imulants might have a run under the title of " Dr. Brown's Exciting Pill ;" and, for the privilege of the name, offered him a sum in hand, by no means contemptible, as well as a share of the contemplated profits. Poor Brown, needy as he was, to his honour indignantly rejected the proposal, By his sojourn in London Brown did not improve his circumstances : he persisted in his old irregularities, projecting at the same time 'great designs, and entertaining sanguine expectations of success ; but on the 7th of October 1788, when he was about fifty-two years of age, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, and died in the course of the night. No. XXVII. DR. BROWN IN HIS STUDY, Writing, we have little doubt, his " Elements of Medicine," a new edition of which, revised and corrected by Dr. Beddoes, was printed in two vols. 8v0, in 1793.
Volume 8 Page 87
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