Masonic Portraits. (No. 56.)

MASONIC PORTRAITS . ( No . 56 . )

HIPPOCRATES . " A head , where wisdom mysteries did frame ; "Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain ,

As on a stithe , where that somo work of fame Was daily wrought , to turn to Britain ' s gain . A visage , stern and mild ; whero both did grow Vice to contemn , in virtue to rejoice :

A tongue , Whoso courteous talk to virtue did inflame Each noble heart ; a worthy guido to bring Our English youth , by travail , unto fame .

An eye , wnoso judgment none altcct conici blind , Mends to allure , and foes to reconcile ; Whose piercing look did represent a mind With virtue fraught , reposed , void of guile .

A heart , where dread was never so imprest To hide the thought that might tho truth advance ; In neither fortune loft , nor yet represt , To swell in wealth , or yield unto mischance .

THERE is no section of the community which is capable of effecting , and which docs indeed effect , so much good , as that which devotes its whole time , energy , and ability to the study and practice of the healing art . A medical man , bo he surgeon or physician , who is thoroughly

versed in his art , and whoso opportunities for exercising it are many and ample , can never rest , even momentarily , from his labours , but he must be sensible that his skill and knowledge have been employed in the honourable endeavour to alleviate pain , to counteract the insidious workings of

fell disease , or to repair those injuries moro or less severe or terrible , which , men , in their everyday pursuits , are liable to sustain . There are few who see so much of the pain and anguish of this world , and to the infinite credit of the profession be it added , there aro few who exhibit more

abundantly that grandest of all the virtues , tho virtue of Charity . Much has been said about tho emoluments they receive , and the rapidit y with which some among them amass very considerable fortunes , but small account is taken of the constant wear aud tear of energy , both of mind

and body , to which they arc subjected , of the anxieties by which , in the conscientious fulfilment of their duties , it is inevitable they must be surrounded , or even of tho innumerable petty cares which awn it them in their daily course . Tho non-professional reader will have some

difficulty in realising the sense of pain which a physician must feel in visiting the bedside of some fevcr-stricken patient who he knows is , humanly speaking , beyond all hope of recovery . It is not merely the picture of a fellow-creature in the very crisis of his malady which he has to confront ;

there is also the anguish of the sick one ' s family , with their mute appeals for even the faintest glimmering of a hope which ho feels it would bo unwarrantable to offer ; or it may be he knows the death of his patient means the entire break up and dispersion of a home , or that a numerous

and tender family will bo left motherless . Theso and similar scenes come within his daily experience , yet he must witness them unmoved , and go his wonted rounds as though there were no such things in this world as suffering and grief . In times of danger , as when the cholera , or an

epidemic of typhoid or small-pox , attacks the people , our principal reliance is in the zeal and ability of the profession , nor has this sense of reliance ever been disappointed . Wherever the peril of contagion or infection has been greatest , thither have they always hastened with alacrity ,

in order to cope , as far as possible , with the ravages of disease . In short , there aro none who do their duty more readily or with greater ability , and but very few who experience so much pain and worry in the discharge of such duty .

The subject of our present notice is a member of that honourable calling whose virtues AVC have faintly endeavoured to enumerate in the foregoing remarks , and taking a local sketch of his career as tho basis of our statement , we venture to say , without fear of contradiction , that few

medical men have laboured more diligently and more successfully , and , consequently , that few enjoy a wider range of professional experience than our worthy and highly respected brother . Even in earl y youth he

was intended for the profession he adorns , to which several of his ancestors had belonged , and in which thej had achieved distinction ; and having received the usual scholastic training in his native Hull , under the auspices of a master of considerable reputation at the time , he was

Masonic Portraits. (No. 56.)

in accordance with tho then conditions prescribed by Apothecaries' Hall , apprenticed for five years to a qualified surgeon . At the end of that period he matriculated at tho University of Glasgow , and had the opportunity of attondin" its famous anatomical aud surgical classes .

Here for three years he pursued his course assiduously , and then removed to London , where for two years he attended the Medical School and practice at St . Thomas ' s Hospital . In 1832 he obtained the diplomas necessary to enable him to practise his profession , and from the first

he showed tho stuff that was iu him . In that year Asiatic cholera first visited Hull , and one of the earliest cases occurred among our brother ' s patients . He at onco placed himself in communication with the local authorities with a view to urging upon them the necessity for

improved sanitary arrangements . But local authorities aro moved but slowly , and it was not till fifteen years later , when another attack of the samo scourge was impending , that tho work of improvement was taken seriously in hand . The Medical Society of Hull set bravely to

work . They mapped out the town into districts , appointed a Sanitary Committee , and assigned a district to each member of the Committee for him to report upon and offer recommendations . According to all accounts , onr brother ' s report was a most elaborate one , and though

others may have worked with the same energy , and though it were unjust to withhold a measure of praise from the authorities for the hearty goodwill with which they cooperated with the Sanitary Committee , still it appears that his earnest representations had a most salutary effect , and

that the sanitary improvements which have been since introduced , owe their origin to his efforts and those of his coadjutors . Ho is also a Trustee and Deputy Chairman of the Directors of the Hull General Cemetery Company , which owes its establishment to his earnest advocacy ,

supported as it was by tho present Town Clerk and other of his friends . In the many educational and charitable organisations which are certain to bo promoted in so thriving and populous a seaport as Hull , our brother has played a most active part , the praise due for the success of such

organisations being , in some cases , principally accorded to him , while in other cases ho has shared it with other of his fellow-townsmen . In tho year 1875 he was appointed a magistrate for the borough , and ho is one of the visiting justices of the Hull Borough Prison and Hull Borough .

Asylum . He is Senior Honorary burgeon to the Hull Lyingin Hospital and the Hull and East Yorkshire Penitentiary , one of the Managers of tho Hull Model Dwellings , a member of the Council of the Hull Literaiy and Philosophical Society , the local Honorary Secretary of the

Palestine Exploration Fund , and a member of other local bodies . His name , indeed , is a tower of strength to every institution with which he is connected , and it is needless to say that in the course of the five or six and forty years he has been labouring so earnestly and so assiduously , he

has earned for himself the enduring respect of his fellowtownsmen . That in private life he should bo loved as well as respected is a matter of course . Men who do so much for the common weal are not in the habit of overlooking tho claims of those who are nearest and dearest to them .

As a proof of the intense earnestness by which he has through life been actuated , and the determined love he has had for sheer hard work , it should be mentioned that when ho had been in practice only some three years , it was in his power to have succeeded a relative in a well established

and lucrative country practice . However , he declined the offer , and in preference remained where the duties were far moro onerous and exacting . Such , in outline , is the professional career of our able and distinguished brother , — a career to which he and his may point with every feeling of pride .

His career as a Mason is only a few years shorter , and is certainl y not less distinguished . It is well nigh forty years since he was initiated into Freemasonry in the Humber Lodge , No . -57 , then IYo . 05 . This happened on the lGth October 183 ? , in tho days when H . R . H . the Duke of

Sussex was Grand Master . In thoso days there were but few members of the Society in Hull , which then had two , while now it can boast of four Lodges . Indeed , in the whole Province there were but seven Lodges and six

Chapters as against the twenty-five Lodges and thirteen Chapters which it now comprises . In June 1840 he was appointed the Junior Warden of his Lodge , and in 1841 , at the meeting , at which was present His Royal Highness the Grand Master , of the Provincial Grand Lodge , the minor office of