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156 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. eminent Graevius was here his preceptor ; and after a residence of three years, being resolved to dedicate himself to medicine, he bent his steps to Ley den. Pitcairn was the professor of the prac- tice of medicine at this university, and his yomig pupil managed to unlock his usual reserve so far, as even to obtain from him several valuable hints, of which he afterwards availed himself in his writings, but never without an acknowledgment of their origin. When his medical education was accomplished, he travelled in various parts of Europe, and parti- cularly in Italy, in company with his eldest bro- ther, with David Polhill, Esq., and with Dr. Pellet, who subsequently became president of the London College of Physicians. He appears to have em- ployed this opportunity to great advantage ; and at Padua took the degree of doctor. He returned home in 1696, and commenced the practice of his profession in the house where he had first seen the light. During some years of residence at Stepney, he succeeded in establishing his reputation. Li 1701 he published his Mechanical Account of Poisons," on which he had been some time em- ployed. He deserves particular notice, as having been one of the early votaries of experimental physiology : no small degree of courage was ne- cessary for the path which he had chosen. He handled vipers, provoked them, and encouraged them to seize hold of hard bodies, on which he imagined that he could collect their venom in all its force. Having obtained the matter, he con- veyed it into the veins of living animals, mixed it with human blood, and even ventured to taste it,