|
LIDDEL, (DR) DUNCAN, a
physician of eminence, was born in Aberdeen in the year 1561, and was son to
a respectable citizen of that town. [Inscription on a brass plate, in the
church of St Nicholas, Aberdeen; Sketch of the Life of Dr Duncan Liddel,
Aberdeen, 1790. This pamplet, understood to have been written by the late Mr
John Stewart, professor of Greek in Marischal college, gives so accurate and
concise an account of its subject, that little can be added. We are aware of
but one work having any reference to Liddel, which has been overlooked. The
Literae ad Joannem Kepplerum contain one or two letters from him.] He
received his education at the schools, and the university of King’s college,
in his native city. In the year 1579, at the early age of eighteen, he
visited the continent, passing over to Dantzic, whence he travelled through
Poland to Frankfort on the Oder, where he had the good fortune to meet with
a beneficent countryman, Dr John Craig, afterwards physician to James VI.,
who then taught logic and mathematics. His views, which were previously
wavering, were fixed by the kind attention and assistance of his friend, who
enabled him to study mathematics, philosophy, and medicine, for three years
in the university of Frankfort, where Craig was himself a professor. In
1582, Craig proposing to return to Scotland, his pupil proceeded to
prosecute his studies at Breslaw in Silesia, under the conduct of a
statesman at that period of considerable note—Andreas Dudithius, to whose
attention his zealous countryman had recommended him. In this new sphere of
exertion, he is said to have made extensive progress in his favourite study
of the mathematics, under the tuition of professor Paulus Wittichius. After
spending somewhat more than a year at Breslaw, he returned to Frankfort,
where he again turned his attention to medicine, and commenced a course of
private tuition in mathematics and philosophy. A contagious distemper which
broke out at Frankfort in 1587, dispersing the students in various
directions, induced him to change his place of residence for the celebrated
university of Rostock. Here he appears to have first acquired celebrity for
his professional knowledge and conversational information, and particularly
for his knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. He became the companion and
pupil of Brucaeus, a physician and philosopher of Flanders, who, although
the senior of Liddel, both in years and celebrity, acknowledges himself to
have received much useful information and assistance from the young
philosopher, while Caselius, another companion and friend of Liddel, pays a
tribute to the comprehensiveness of his genius and reading, by remarking
that "he was the first person in Germany who explained the motions of the
heavenly bodies, according to the three different hypotheses of Ptolemy,
Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe."
The illustrious individual
last mentioned, had likewise studied at the university of Rostock: it is
probable that the pursuits of the two philosophers brought them into
contact, and the author of the Biography of Liddel, considers it
sufficiently established, that they were intimate with each other in after
life, and that the Danish philosopher frequently visited the subject of our
memoir in his journeys to Scotland. There is, however, a shadow of authority
for supposing [On the authority of Caselius’s dedication to Craig, and the
funeral oration on Liddel.] that Liddel held the higher rank of
an opponent of Tycho Brahe, and maintained a disputation with him on equal
terms. The eccentric Sir Thomas Urquhart, who, whatever information he may
have chosen to receive on the subject, certainly was enabled to have made
himself master of the true state of the circumstances which he related,
says, "These mathematical blades put me in mind of that Dr Liddel, who for
his profoundness in those sciences of sensible immaterial objects, was every
where much renowned, especially at Frankfort de Main, Frankfort on the Odor,
and Heidelberg, where he was almost as well known as the monstrous
bacchanalian tun that stood there in his time. He was an eminent professor
of mathematics, a disciple of the most excellent astronomer Tycho Brahe, and
condisciple of that worthy Longomontanus: yet in imitation of Aristotle,
(whose doctrine with great proficiency he had imbued,) he esteemed more of
truth than either of Socrates or Plato; when the new star began to appear in
the constellation of Cassiopaeia, there was concerning it such an
intershocking of opinions betwixt Tycho Brahe and Dr Liddel, evulged in
print to the open view of the world, that the understanding reader could not
but have commended both for all; and yet (in giving each his due) praised
Tycho Brahe most for astronomy, and Liddel for his knowledge above him in
all the other parts of philosophy." It is not improbable that the
imaginative author of the Jewel may have thought proper, without much
inquiry, to bestow on a person born in his own near neighbourhood, the merit
of a conflict in which a Scotsman, whose name may not have then been known,
was engaged; at the same time adding to the lustre of the achievements of
his countryman. The author of the Life of Dr Liddel observes, "Upon what
authority this circumstance is founded cannot be discovered, for there is no
mention of it in either of the very full accounts of the life and
writings of Tycho Brahe, by Gassendi and Montucla, nor in a large volume
written by Tycho himself, concerning this new star; although he there
animadverts at great length upon the opinions of many other
astronomers, who had also treated of it. Nor could any such controversy have
possibly happened at the time mentioned by Sir Thomas Urquhart, for
the new star there spoken of was observed by Tycho Brahe in 1572, and the
account of it published in 1573, when Dr Liddel was only twelve years of
age. There is indeed in the volume of Astronomical epistles of Tycho Brahe,
a long letter from him to his friend Rothmannus, chiefly filled with severe
reflections upon the publications of a certain Scotsman against his account
of the comet of 1577, not of the new star in Cassiopaeia; but it appears
from Gassendi that this Scottish writer was Dr Craig, formerly mentioned,
and not Dr Liddel." When we recollect that Liddel and Craig, as intimate
literary associates, may have imbibed the same theories, and similar methods
of stating them, this last circumstance approaches a solution of the
difficulty.
In the university of Rostock
Liddel received the degree of master of philosophy, and in 1590, he left it
to return to Frankfort, at the request of two young Livonians of rank, to
whom it is probable he acted as tutor. He did not long remain at Frankfort
on his second visit, having heard of the rising fame of the new "Academia
Julia," founded at Helmstadt by Henry Julius, duke of Brunswick in 1576.
Here he accompanied his pupils, and was restored to the company of
his old friend Caselius, whom the duke had invited to his youthful
establishment.
In 1591, Liddel, by the
recommendation of his friend, and of Grunefeldt, an eminent civilian, was
appointed to the lower professorship of mathematics in the new
university, as successor to Parcovius, who had been removed to the faculty
of medicine; and, on the death of Erhardus Hoffman in 1594, he succeeded to
the first, or higher mathematical chair. This eminent station he
filled during the course of nine years, giving instructions in geometry,
astronomy, and universal geography, and keeping the information he
communicated to his pupils, on a level with the dawning progress of
discovery. In 1596, he obtained the degree of doctor in medicine,
and, in a science which was not at that period considered as so
completely abstracted from the circle of general knowledge as its
practical extent now compels it to be, he acquired the
same celebrity which he had achieved in philosophy and mathematics. He is
said by his lectures and writings to have proved the chief support of the
medical school of Helmstadt; he acted as first physician to the court of
Brunswick, and enjoyed a lucrative private practice among the opulent
families in the neighbourhood. In 1599, he was elected dean of the faculty
of philosophy, a post of honour to which he was frequently re-elected, both
by the faculties of philosophy and of medicine. Meanwhile, in the year 1603,
he resigned to Henricus Schaperus the chair of mathematics, of which he had
remained occupant, notwithstanding his labours in another science; and in
the year following, he was chosen pro-rector of the university. The method
of studying his profession, and his courses of public tuition had already
made Liddel an author of no inconsiderable extent, and, about this period,
the fame he had acquired probably induced him to present the academical
works which he had written or superintended, in a distinct manner before the
world. In 1605, was published "Disputationes Medicinales Duncani Liddelii
Scoti, Phil. et Med. Doctoris, et Professoris Publici in Academia Julia
Helmaestadtii." This work, filling four volumes 4to. contains the theses or
public disputations maintained by himself and his pupils at Helmstadt from
1592 to 1606; it is dedicated as a mark of gratitude to his early friend and
patron Craig, accompanied by the usual multitude of commendatory verses on
the author and his works. This book is mentioned by the author of the
memoirs of Liddel as having been reprinted at so late a period as 1720. In
1607, he produced a better known work, "Ars Medica, succincte et perspicue
explicata," published at Hamburg. This work was dedicated to king James. A
second edition was published at Lyons in 1621, and a third at Hamburg in
1628. As in other works on medicine of the period, the range of the
author’s investigation was not confined to subjects to which the term
medical would now exclusively refer; metaphysics were included. Into the
merit of this, as a work on practical medicine, it would now be useless to
inquire, and we may be content with ranking the merit of the author,
according to the estimation of the work during the 17th century, which was
by no means inconsiderable. At the time when the last mentioned work was
published, motives which we cannot now discover, induced Liddel to retire
for the remainder of his life to his native country, which he had frequently
visited during his honoured residence abroad. It would appear that he
privately left the university, as Caselius remarks that the duke of
Brunswick, if aware of his intention, would probably not have permitted so
active a teacher to leave his favourite institution, which was then falling
into confusion. On his return, he passed through Germany and Italy, and
finally took up his residence in Scotland, although in what part of the
country seems not to be known, the earliest information obtained as to his
locality being of the year 1612, when he subscribed at Edinburgh a deed of
settlement, mortifying certain lands in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, for
the support of six bursars in Marischal college. The magistrates of Aberdeen
were appointed trustees for the application of the fund, and according to a
not unusual practice, the curse of God was denounced against any one who
should abuse or misapply it. [In a minute of the council Records of
Aberdeen, of date 6th December, 1638, it is ordained that Dr
Liddel’s bursars shall wear a black bonnet and a black gown, both in the
college and in the street, conform to the will of the mortifier, under the
pain of depridation.] By a settlement dated the 9th December, 1613, he
confirmed the previous donation, and left for the establishment of a
professorship of mathematics in Marischal college the sum of 6000 merks,
which was afterwards profitably laid out on land by the trustees. To the
same institution he left his books and instruments. This may be considered
the last performance of his active life, for he died eight days after its
date, on the 17th of December, 1613. He was buried in the church of St
Nicholas in Aberdeen, where a tablet of brass, on which his portrait has
been boldly and expressively engraved by an artist at Antwerp, was erected
to his memory. He is likewise commemorated by a small obelisk erected in the
lands of Pitmedden, near Aberdeen—the same which he mortified for the
support of bursars. Dying unmarried, the children of a brother and sister
inherited his property, and one of the former succeeded Dr William Johnston
(brother to Arthur the poet) in the mathematical chair which Dr Liddel had
founded.
Besides the literary efforts
already mentioned, a posthumous work by Liddel was published at Hamburg in
1628, entitled "Tractatus de dente aureo;" being an answer to a
Tractate by Jacobus Horstius, who had maintained the verity of a fable,
which bore that a boy of Silesia who had lost a tooth, received from nature,
in return, one of pure gold. The circumstance was considered an omen to
encourage the Germans in their wars with the Turks, and predicative of the
downfall of the Mahometan faith. The subject can be interesting only to
those who study the extent of human credulity. |
