DEATH OF DR. BIRKBECK.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, 23 April 1842, Page 27

DEATH OF DR. BIRKBECK.

Dr. Birkbeck is dead. He expired on the Ist of December last. It is needless to say that he died universally regretted: mankind owe him a debt which can never be repayed, but which will ever be acknowledged with gratitude. Conquerors have their trophics — Kings' their sepulchres : one of the greatest benefactors of a great country will not be without a monument worthy both of him and of it. We extract from the Times ai sketch oi the life of this truly great and good man : — " Dr. Birkbeck was the son of a merchant and banker of considerable eminence at Settle, in Yorkshire, where he was born in the year 1776. After receiving the usual rudiments of education at a village in the neighbourhood, during which he displayed a strong inclination for those mechanical pursuits to which he afterwards became so devoted, it was determined by his friends that he should embrace the medical profession. This choice was perhaps to be regretted, for such a pursuit was undoubtedly unsuited to his natural bent. Had he been encouraged to follow his own inclination, he might have rivalled the discoveries of Arkwright or Watt. But, unhappily, at this period, and for nearly half a century afterwards, it was customary for every man who had three sons to bring one up as a lawyer, a second as a medical man, and a third for the church; as if the mental, physical; and moral state of the community could ever be in such a lamentable condition as to afford employment to such a disproportion. " After studying his profession in the first instance at Leeds, he removed to London, where he had the good fortune to become a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Baillie, whose friendship he retained until death put an end to that illustrious man's career. Afterwards he removed to complete his education in Edinburgh, then in the zenith of that fame as a school of medicine, which, by means of nepotism, mismanagement,and conceit, it. has subsequently lost. Here also he had the happiness to form a friendship with Brougham, Homer, Jeffery, Scott, and others of that race, who" were then beginning to blaze in the northern capital. But while cultivating this brilliant society he did- not neglect his scientific pursuits, and in these he had made such attainments, that before the 22d year of his age he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Andersonian Institution of Glasgow. "It was while in this situation that Dr. Birkbeck laid the basis of those mechanics' institutions, in association with which his name has chiefly attracted present notice, and will engage future remembrance. With liberality rarely evinced in such quarters, he invited the mechanics of the city to * gratuitous attendance on his lectures ; and it was in consequence of their grateful acknowledgment, and the benefit that flowed from the practice, that he was induced on his removal to London, to project the foundation of Mechanics' Institutions. We believe he lent £3,000 to establish the London Institution in Chancery Lane, and by a singular coincidence, the members of that body were to meet for the purpose of celebrating its 18th anniversary within a few hours of the period when its founder had ceased to exist. "As a medical man, Dr. Birkbeck enjoyed considerable "practice, 'much more so than is generally bestowed on those given to "scientific pursuits. .

" In personal appearance Dr. Birkbeck had a quiet,- reflective, beneficent countenance, a venerable and very unpretending aspect."