BAILLIE, Dr. Matthew, was the son of the Rev. James Baillie, who was successively the clergyman of the parishes of Shotts, Bothwell, and Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, and afterwards professor of divinity in the University of Glasgow. The acknowledged influence of the female parent in forming the character of her offspring may be here admitted. His wife was Dorothea, the intellectual sister of the celebrated William and John Hunter; their son, Matthew, became one of the most distinguished anatomists and physicians of the age; and their daughter, Joanna Baillie, added fresh lustre to the poetic genius of Scotland.
The subject of this notice was born in the manse of Shotts in 1761, and was for several years a student in the University of Glasgow, where he became a pupil of Dr. Reid in moral philosophy. His professional career was determined by the advice of his maternal uncle, Dr. William Hunter, who undertook to superintend his education. On his father's death, a Glasgow exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford, was obtained for him, and he remained a year in that celebrated seat of learning before he removed to London, where he enjoyed the advantages of his uncle's personal direction of his studies. In two years more he assisted Dr. Hunter in his anatomical lectures as his assistant and demonstrator, visiting Oxford occasionally, so as to keep his terms to qualify for the degree of bachelor of medicine. Dr. Hunter, at his death, bequeathed the use of his magnificent collections to his nephew, together with the lecture-rooms in Windmill Street, an annuity of £100 a-year, and a small family estate in Scotland; which last was resigned by Baillie to his other uncle, John Hunter, whom he considered as the natural heir.
Within two years after Dr. Hunter's death, his nephew became the principal teacher in that celebrated school of anatomy; and in 1787, although only a bachelor of medicine, he was appointed physician to St. George's Hospital, where he soon distinguished himself by the precision and accuracy of his diagnosis, and the sagacity of his treatment of dis-
Baillie, ease, which speedily introduced him to respectable private practice.
In 1789 he married Sophia, daughter of the eminent accoucheur Dr Denman; a connection which favoured his introduction to practice among the first circles in London, for which, however, he was still more indebted to his talents, his high character, and his unassuming manners. The fine collections of his two uncles became his careful study; and to render them more useful to the public, he gave to the world, in 1795, the result of his examination of them, and of his own experience, in his Morbid Anatomy, a most valuable work, which was speedily translated into French, Italian, and German, the latter by no less distinguished an anatomist than Soemmering. After this, Oxford did itself honour by enrolling Matthew Baillie among its doctors of medicine; and he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
Dr Baillie was eminently distinguished by his profound knowledge of his profession, his sagacity, his very perspicuous and decided mode of explaining his views of the nature of a disease, his uniform courtesy to his professional brethren, his kindness of manner to his numerous patients, and his delicate attention to the feelings and cases of the poor who applied to him for advice, at a time when the rich and the noble, and even royalty itself, made large demands on his time and medical services. In person Dr Baillie was slender, and rather diminutive; but his mind was expanded, his intellect of the first order; his manners were kind and courteous, and perfectly unassuming; his benevolence extensive and unostentatious; and probably no physician who ever practised in London was more universally respected, or more sincerely regretted, than Dr Matthew Baillie at the period of his decease, which took place on the 23d of September 1823, in the 63d year of his age. The second edition of the Morbid Anatomy appeared in 1797; and two years afterwards it was illustrated by a 4to volume of engravings, with excellent descriptions of the plates. Two years after his death, appeared his Anatomical Lectures and Medical Observations. The Works, 2 vols. 8vo, edited, with a biographical sketch, by Mr Wardrop, contain only the Morbid Anatomy and miscellaneous medical papers. (r. s. t.)