the senior president of the Hunterian Medical Society, and was at the same time senior president of the Anatomical and Physiological Society, which had been resuscitated by Dr. Knox and himself. In 1841 he was appointed physician to the Royal Public Dispensary, where for the first time in Edinburgh he introduced the use of cod-liver oil. During the epidemic of relapsing fever in Edinburgh in 1843, he had charge of the largest outdoor district, and when his three assistants broke down did the work single-handed.
In the session of 1844–5 Lonsdale's increasing liability to bronchitis induced him to relinquish his brilliant prospects in Edinburgh and to return to Carlisle, where he settled in the autumn of 1845. In 1846 he was appointed physician to the Cumberland Infirmary, an office which he held for twenty-two years. To the deficiency of vegetable food consequent on the potato blight of 1846, Lonsdale, after very thorough investigation, attributed an epidemic of scurvy, then prevailing in a district north of Carlisle; Dr. Robert Christison had assigned the complaint to a defective supply of milk. Each doctor stated his case in the ‘Edinburgh Medical Journal,’ but Christison finally accepted Lonsdale's theory.
When in the winter of 1847–8 cholera seemed to be threatening western Europe, Lonsdale set on foot a sanitary association in Carlisle, and contributed many articles to the ‘Journal of Public Health,’ a London periodical supported by the early sanitary reformers. His report on the health of Carlisle was quoted with commendation in the House of Commons by Lord Morpeth. A careful essay which he wrote on the health of bakers also attracted notice, and was reprinted in ‘Chambers's Journal.’
After his marriage in 1851 Lonsdale chiefly occupied himself in reading, travelling in southern and eastern Europe, interesting himself in Italian art and archæology, and collecting materials for the lives of eminent Cumberland men. He died on 23 July 1876, and was buried on the 27th in Stanwix churchyard. He married Eliza Indiana, only daughter of John Smith Bond of Rose Hill, near Carlisle, which subsequently became his own residence. He left three sons and three daughters.
Lonsdale, a man of genial and kindly temperament, was in politics a philosophical radical, and took especial interest in the cause of Italian unity. He helped to collect subscriptions for Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily in 1860, and was the friend of Mazzini and Kossuth, as well as of Garibaldi.
Lonsdale's writings are: 1. ‘A biographical Sketch of William Blamire, formerly M.P. for Cumberland,’ 4to, London, 1862, afterwards reissued in vol. i. of the ‘Worthies of Cumberland.’ 2. ‘The Life and Works of Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson, sculptor, with Illustrations,’ 4to, London, 1866, an excellent biography. 3. ‘The Worthies of Cumberland,’ 6 vols. 8vo, London, 1867–75, a series of pleasantly written biographies. 4. ‘A Biographical Memoir’ prefixed to the ‘Anatomical Memoirs’ of his old friend Professor John Goodsir, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1868. 5. ‘A Sketch of the Life and Writings of Robert Knox, the Anatomist,’ 8vo, London, 1870, undertaken at the request of some old Edinburgh friends. Lonsdale also collected the ‘Poetical Works’ of Miss Susanna Blamire, which were published at Edinburgh under the editorship of Patrick Maxwell in 1842, and edited the ‘Life of Dr. John Heysham of Carlisle,’ 4to, London, 1870.
[Carlisle Journal, 28 July 1876, p. 5; Carlisle Express, 29 July 1876, p. 5; British Medical Journal, 5 Aug. 1876, p. 195; Ward's Men of the Reign, s.v.; London and Provincial Medical Directory, 1868, p. 445.]
LONSDALE, JAMES (1777–1839), portrait-painter, was born at Lancaster on 16 May 1777. After some practice in art, in which he was encouraged by the patronage of Archibald, ninth Duke of Hamilton, he arrived in London early in life, became a pupil in the house of George Romney, and a student at the Royal Academy. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802, sending a portrait of ‘Miss Brooke,’ and was thenceforward a regular contributor of portraits to that exhibition. In 1818 he exhibited a portrait of Talma the actor as ‘Hamlet.’ On the death of John Opie in 1807 Lonsdale purchased his house in Berners Street, where he resided for the remainder of his life. He took a large share in the foundation of the Society of British Artists, and was a frequent exhibitor at their gallery. He was also portrait-painter in ordinary to the Duke of Sussex and to Queen Caroline, painting several portraits of each, and was one of the painters to the Beefsteak Society. Lonsdale conceived his paintings in a strong and vigorous manner, but his execution was smooth and rather tame. He had a very extensive practice, and some of his portraits were engraved. He painted for the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel Castle a large historical subject of ‘King John signing Magna Charta,’ and, besides some portraits of the duke, among other notabilities, painted the emperor of Russia, the king of the Belgians, and the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. In the National Portrait Gal-
