One of them was in the navy, and Lieutenant of the Aurora frigate, which was lost in her passage to the East Indies, having on board many distinguished personages, and among them the Judges, Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Scroften, &c. Two more were in the army, both of whom certainly died in consequence of fatigues and hardships suffered in America.
Of Dr. D. P. a great deal more is to be said.
D. P. was the eldest son of Major P. and was brought up in the High School, at Edinburgh, whither his mother removed after the death of her husband. He there got great credit; and Mr. French, the master under whose instruction he went through the first four classes, ever retained the sincerest attachment to him. When he left school, he removed to the University of Glasgow, where he continued for a number of years. From Glasgow he again revisited Edinburgh, where, for some time, he attended lectures. From Edinburgh he proceeded to Cambridge, and was a member of Benet College. On taking his degree, he went to London, and became an inmate in the house of his uncle, Dr. W. P. After the death of his protector, he progressively rose to the eminence and fortune which his abilities deserved, and which, from a very early period, they promised. Unfortunately, and at the very period when his practice was almost as extensive as it well could be, he ruptured a blood vessel in the lungs, and, for the benefit of a milder climate, proceeded to Lisbon. Here he continued for two years, but, though he returned convalescent, he deemed it expedient and necessary to circumscribe his practice, and, indeed, almost altogether to limit it to the families of his older friends and connections, which alone were sufficiently numerous. The reputation, however, which he universally obtained for sagacity and sound judgment, compelled him, in a manner, gradually to extend his circle, when, alas! his career was lamentably shortened. He was constitutionally subject to sore throat, and generally slept with leeches by his side, to be ready to apply in case of any unfavourable symptoms. But, at a moment when his friends and he himself thought his health effectually restored, and he was again rising fast to the very head of his profession, he complained of a soreness in his throat. He thought very slightly of it at first, but, though attended by Dr. Baillie and Sir Everard Home, both of whom were attached to him by the strongest possible ties of esteem and friendship, in three days he was a corpse.
There seems to have been some misapprehension of his case; and perhaps his own suggestion on the subject of his malady, written by himself with a pencil, when he was unable to speak, might not receive the attention it deserved. Be this as it may, nothing could exceed the grief of those who attended him, at the loss of one who, for a long series of years, had been their counsellor, their companion, and their friend.
What opinion his medical friends entertained of his professional skill, may best be seen by the tribute of esteem and respect paid to his memory by Dr. William Heberden, in one of the best Harveian orations ever delivered at the College.
In one year the world was deprived of the skill and sagacity of Dr. John Hunter and Dr. David Pitcairn, which Dr. Heberden thus emphatically deplores:
“Quibus autem lamentis, quo luctu Te Huntere, et te Pitcairne prosequemur? quos vigentes adhuc mors occupavit, atque ambos unus annus nobis eripuit? Cognitione, prudentia, moderatione animi prope æquales fuerunt. Fama quoque utrique par, sed alia alii. Alter militiæ, domi alter clarus factus est.
“Quod si Hunterus in castris et infamibus Indiæ Occidentalis locis, magna medendi diligentia celebritatem consecutus sit, non minus Pitcairnus de patria bene meritus est, qui Valetudinario Sancti Bartolomæi plures annos singulari laude præfuit: in quo pauperes pene innumerabiles cura sublevavit, multosque discipulos præceptis ex re natis, ad medicinam faciendam optimè instituit. Nam fuit in illo gravitas et autoritas quanta magistrum decet, simul gratia et probitas quibus discentium animos mire ad se allexit.
“Postea relictis publicis muneribus cum ad privata totum se converterat, inter summi ordinis ægros occupatissimus vixit, donec adversa valetudo ut sibi caveret, monuisset. Tum sine mora Ulyssiponem se subduxit, ubi otium perinde ac salutem reciperet. Inde ut rediit, paucos modo curare constituit, neque ut antea, mediis negotiorum fluctibus se implicari sivit. Medicinam tamen adhuc exercebat, crescente etiam ætate vegetior factus, cum hominem temperantem, summum medicum, tantus improviso morbus oppresserit, ut præclusis inflammatione et tumore faucibus, vix diem unum atque alterum superesset Lugeamus amici sortem humanam! lugeamus socios amissos! vel potius eorum sic meminerimus ut quotiescumque de clarissimis et beatissimis viris cogitemus, nosmetipsos ad virtutem accendere, et ad omnem fortunam paratiores præstare videamur.”
There could not possibly be given a more accurate, or more faithful portraiture of the man, than is exhibited in the above truly classical extract: of his professional knowledge, skill, and sagacity, it cannot, therefore, be necessary to add a syllable.