Portico of the College of Physicians, Pall-Mall East.
The sentiments of the College itself towards Dr. Baillie may be collected from the following tribute to his memory, which was ordered to be inserted in their Annals on the 30th September, 1823.
“That our posterity may know the extent of its obligation to the benefactor whose death we all deplore, be it recorded, that Dr. Baillie gave the whole of his most valuable collection of anatomical preparations to the College, and six hundred pounds for the preservation of the same; and this, too, after the example of the illustrious Harvey, in his lifetime. His contemporaries need not an enumeration of his many virtues to account for their respectful attachment to him whilst he lived, or to justify the profound grief which they feel at his death. But to the rising generation of physicians, it may be useful to hold up for an example his remarkable simplicity of heart, his strict and clear integrity, his generosity, and that religious principle by which his conduct seemed always to be governed, as well calculated to secure to them the respect and good-will of their colleagues and the profession at large, and the high estimation and confidence of the public.”
But I have done. It has already been explained how I came to occupy my present position; and having once passed under the splendid portico of the New College, I am afraid there is no chance of my ever emerging from the dark recess I occupy in its library.
The publication of the First Edition of my history has at least procured for me one of the advantages I ventured to anticipate: for having become to a certain degree an object of curiosity, my seclusion has occasionally been broken in upon by a temporary exhibition to a visitor. Upon the whole, however, my leisure has been so little interrupted, that I have had abundant time to recollect more fully the various scenes, which I have witnessed; and it is to be hoped, that these additional memoirs will be given to the world by the Registrar of the College with the same scrupulous regard to truth that formed the sole merit of my first imperfect narrative.
THE END