appointed agent for the state of Pennsylvania to examine the public lands, and had the administration of the act directing the distribution of the donation-lands promised to the soldiers of the revolution. He suggested the purchase of the piece of land known as ‘The Triangle,’ to give Pennsylvania an outlet on Lake Erie. He was a member of the continental congress of 1786, and was one of the assessors for settling the accounts of the union with individual states. He commanded the Pennsylvanian state militia against the whisky insurgents in 1794; served as a representative in the third congress from 2 Dec. 1793 to 3 March 1795; subsequently he removed to Philadelphia, and in 1801 was made superintendent of military stores there. He was president of the state society of Cincinnati at the time of his death, which took place at Philadelphia 29 July 1804. Two of Irvine's brothers were in the military service of the revolution, Andrew, a captain of infantry, and Matthew, a surgeon; and he left several sons serving as officers in the United States army.
Appleton's Cyclop. American Biography, vol. iii. The statement in Appleton that Irvine ‘graduated’ at Dublin is doubtful, as the name does not appear in the Dublin Catalogue of Graduates.]
IRVINE, WILLIAM (1776–1811), physician, son of William Irvine (1743–1787) [q. v.], professor of chemistry at Glasgow, was born there in 1776. He studied medicine in the university of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D. 25 June 1798. His thesis, ‘De Epispasticis,’ was based upon an unpublished essay of his father's on nervous diseases (Preface to Chemical Essays, 1805). He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London 25 June 1806, and his professional life was spent in the medical service of the army as physician to the forces. In 1805 he published his father's ‘Essays, chiefly on Chemical Subjects.’ In 1808 he was stationed in Sicily, and in 1810 his most important work appeared, ‘Some Observations upon Diseases, chiefly as they occur in Sicily.’ This book is based upon observations on malarial fever and dysentery made in the general army hospital at Messina, and contains several acute remarks, such as that abscess of the liver is associated with dysentery, that it may burst through the diaphragm into the lung, and the patient nevertheless recover. Shingles was then confused with erysipelas, but he notes accurately a difference in the results of treatment which is due to the definite duration of the former disease. He had carefully compared his own observations with those of George Cleghorn [q. v.] and of James Currie [q. v.] on similar fevers, and had studied minutely the observations of Hippocrates on diseases of the Mediterranean region. He died of fever at Malta, 23 May 1811. After his death were published in 1813 his ‘Letters on Sicily.’
[Works; Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 37.]
IRVING, DAVID, LL.D. (1778–1860), biographer and librarian, fourth and youngest son of Janetus Irving of Langholm, Dumfriesshire, by Helen, daughter of Simon Little, was born at Langholm on 5 Dec. 1778. After a sound preliminary education at Langholm, David entered Edinburgh University in 1796, and in 1801 graduated M.A. While a student he was a successful private tutor, and enjoyed the friendship of the veteran critic, Dr. Anderson, to whom in 1799 he ‘gratefully inscribed’ his ‘Life of Robert Fergusson, with a Critique on his Works.’ This puerile and imperfect performance was followed by similar biographies of William Falconer of the ‘Shipwreck,’ and Russell the historian of modern Europe, and the three sketches were republished together in 1800, with a dedication to Andrew Dalzel, the Edinburgh professor of Greek. In 1801 appeared Irving's ‘Elements of English Composition,’ which has been a very popular text-book.
Abandoning his original intention of becoming a clergyman, Irving for a time studied law, but at length settled to literary pursuits. In 1804 he published in two volumes ‘The Lives of the Scotish Poets; with Preliminary Dissertations on the Literary History of Scotland and the Early Scotish Drama.’ This evinced both learning and critical capacity, and it was followed in 1805 by the ‘Life of George Buchanan,’ which amply demonstrated Irving's wide and minute scholarship, exceptional faculty for research, and literary dexterity. Revised and enlarged, the work reappeared in 1817 as ‘Memoirs of the Life and Writings of George Buchanan.’ In 1808 the university of Aberdeen conferred on Irving the honorary degree of LL.D., and in the same year he was candidate for the chair of classics at Belfast, but withdrew before the election. In 1810 he married the daughter of Dr. Robert Anderson (1750–1830) [q. v.], who died in 1812 after the birth of a son. In 1813 he printed a touching ‘Memorial of Anne Margaret Anderson,’ for private circulation. Up to 1820 Irving devoted himself to literary work, and to the interests of a few university students who boarded with him. His superintendence of their studies led to his printing in 1815 ‘Observations on the Study of the Civil Law,’ which was reprinted in 1820 and
