and judicious essays to the leading journals of the times. He was also the author of several highly finished performances in the character of orations and reviews. Of these, it is sufficient to mention his addresses before the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science; the Alumni of Williams College; the Chester County Horticultural Society; the Society of the Sons of New England in Philadelphia; and his glowing tribute to the memory of Peter Collinson. His researches, in procuring authentic materials for his discourses, were indefatigable. His literary taste was refined, almost to fastidiousness; and hence his style is terse, chaste, and polished. It may be safely predicated of him as a writer,-nihil tetigit quod non

ornavit.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY, M.D.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, was the son of Leonard Dorsey, and grandson of Edmund Physick. He was born in Philadelphia, December 23d, 1783. He early studied physic with his relative, Dr. Physick, and was Doctor of Medicine at the age of eighteen years. He afterwards visited England and France for his improvement in medical science,-returning home in December, 1804. In 1807, he was elected Adjunct Professor of Surgery with Dr. Physick, at Philadelphia; and, on the death of Dr. Wistar, was chosen Professor of Anatomy. He now attained a height most gratifying to his ambition; but Providence had selected him to teach a salutary lesson on the precarious tenure of life, and the importance of being always prepared for death. On the evening of the day in which he pronounced his eloquent introductory lecture he was attacked with a fever, and in a week died, November 12th, 1818, aged thirty-five years. When, by his express command, he was informed of his state, and apprised of his certain death, he was resigned to the will of heaven. As a Christian, he had practised the duties of religion. With fervor he reiterated his confidence in the atonement of his Saviour. He was thus sustained in an hour when, on the bed of death, the proud warrior would shudder in thinking of the destinies of eternity.

As a surgeon, he was almost unrivalled. Besides papers for the periodical journals, and an edition of Cooper's Surgery, with notes, he published "Elements of Surgery," two volumes, 1813.

DAVID JAMES DOVE.

BY JOSHUA FRANCIS FISHER.

MR. DOVE is mentioned, by Alexander Graydon, as a popular satirical poet, about the middle of the last century. He was by birth an Englishman, and had, it is said, gained some ludicrous notoriety in his own country. He was established in Philadelphia as a schoolmaster, before the year 1759; and, soon afterwards, was appointed English teacher in the Philadelphia Academy; but he disagreed with the trustees, and, on the opening of the Germantown Academy, in 1762, became head master in that seminary. Another quarrel soon separated him from that institution, and he erected a house on an adjoining lot, where he established an opposition school; but this undertaking was unsuccessful, and shortly abandoned, and we hear no more of Mr. Dove. He is said to have been a good scholar, and distinguished for his powers of elocution. He had an ardent and peculiar temper, and was whimsical even in his discipline. Amongst several amusing instances, Mr. Graydon gives the following: "He had another contrivance for boys who were late in their morning attendance. This was to despatch a committee of five or six scholars for them, with a bell and lighted lantern; and, in this odd equipage, in broad daylight, the bell all the while tingling, they were conducted to school." As Dove affected strict regard to justice in his dispensations of correction, he once submitted with good humor to the same punishment from his pupils, to their no small gratification and the entertainment of the spectators. As his poetical compositions were generally political or personal satires, their popularity, though great, was only ephemeral; and I do not know that a copy of a single piece is now to be found. I have heard repeated several lines from a very bitter attack

upon William Moore, of Moore's Hall, entitled "Washing the Black-a-moor White," written on the occasion of that gentleman's arrest by the Assembly. The verses of Mr. Dove are characterized as bitterly sarcastic, and sometimes pointedly witty; and he, perhaps, chiefly owed his ill success in this province to his unrestrained propensity to satire.

Mr. Dove was also a caricaturist of considerable reputation, and a few copies of the productions of our provincial Gilray was a treasure to the antiquary. Like his satires, they were political, personal, and moral, and sometimes possessed, it is said, great humor. They were not often engraved; but several copies by the author himself were distributed privately, or hung in the barbers' shops of the city.

EDWARD DRINKER.

MR. DRINKER was remarkable for his longevity, and was born December 24th, 1680, in a cabin near the present corner of Walnut and Second Streets, in Philadelphia. His parents had removed to this place from Beverly, Massachusetts. The banks of the Delaware were inhabited, at the time of his birth, by the Indians, and a few Swedes and Hollanders. At the age of twelve years, he went to Boston, where he served an apprenticeship to a cabinet-maker. In the year 1745, he returned to Philadelphia, where he lived till the time of his death. He was four times married, and had eighteen children, all of whom were by his first wife. He died November 17th, 1782, aged one hundred and two years. In his old age, the powers of his mind were very little impaired. He enjoyed so uncommon a share of health, that he was never confined more than three days to his bed. He was a man of an amiable character, and he continued to the last uniformly cheerful and kind. principles were as steady as his morals were pure. public worship about thirty years in the Presbyterian Church under Dr. Sproat, and died in the fullest assurance of a happy immortality. He witnessed the most astonishing changes. He lived to see the spot, where he had picked blackberries and hunted rabbits,

His religious

He attended

become the seat of a great city, the first in wealth in America. He saw ships of every size in those streams, where he had been used to see nothing larger than an Indian canoe. He saw the first treaty between France and the independent States of America ratified upon the very spot where he had seen William Penn ratify

his first and last treaties with the Indians. He had been the subject of seven crowned heads!

WILLIAM DUANE.

WILLIAM DUANE was born, in 1760, near Lake Champlain, New York, where his parents, natives of Ireland, had shortly before settled. When he was eleven years old, his mother returned to her native country, taking William, her only child, with her. The father had died several years before. Possessed of property, she brought up her son as a person of leisure. At the age of nineteen, by a marriage with a Protestant, he offended his parent, a Roman Catholic, and was at once dismissed from her home, nor was any reconciliation ever after effected. Forced to provide for the maintenance of his family, he learned the art of printing, and was engaged in that trade until the year 1784, when he went to India to seek his fortune. He was successful, and, in a few years, established a newspaper, which he called "The World." In a dispute which arose between the Government and some troops in their employ, the paper sided with the latter. Soon after this, his arrest was ordered by Sir John Shore, the Governor. He was seized by Sepoys, placed on board a vessel, and carried to England. His property, including a valuable library, was confiscated. He endea vored to obtain redress from Parliament and the East India Company, but without success. Again forced to provide for a livelihood, he became a parliamentary reporter, and afterwards an early writer of "The General Advertiser," a newspaper which subsequently became "The London Times." He sided in politics with the party of Horne Tooke and others.

In 1795, he came with his family to Philadelphia, where he had passed a few years

when a boy. Here he prepared a portion of a work on the French Revolution, and became connected with "The Aurora" newspaper, recently established by Benjamin Franklin Bache; and after Bache's death, of yellow fever, in 1798, became editor. Under his vigorous management the journal was known throughout the country as the leading organ of the Democratic party. Jefferson attributed his election to the presidency to its exertions. In 1799, the editor was tried with others for seditious riots. They were charged with placing at the doors of a Roman Catholic church printed notices requesting the congregation to meet in the churchyard, and sign a petition against the Alien Law. The notices were torn down, replaced, and defended, and a disturbance thus created, during which Reynolds, one of the parties accused, drew a pistol against one of the congregation, which was forced from his hand. The parties were acquitted.

On the removal of the seat of government to Washington, "The Aurora" became a less influential journal, and was gradually superseded by rival publications at the new city. Duane continued in the editorship until 1822, when he sold out and went to South America, as the representative of the creditors of the republics of that continent. He had sided with the struggles for independence of these communities, and received a vote of thanks from the Congress of Colombia for his exertions; and it was on this account supposed that he would be able to obtain a settlement of the claims in question. He was unable to collect any funds, but made good use of the experience of his journey by publishing a pleasant volume of travels, "A Visit to Colombia, 1822-3. Philadelphia, 1826." After his return, he was appointed Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for the Eastern District, and retained the office until his death, in 1835. He was also one of the Aldermen for the City of Philadelphia.

In addition to his newspaper writings, and his book of travels, he was the author of "A Military Dictionary," 1810, and “A Handbook for Riflemen," 1813. At one time he commanded the Philadelphia Legion, a volunteer corps, distinguished for superior discipline; and, during the war of 1812-14, filled the office of Adjutant-General of the army for the district in which he was a resident citizen.