PARIS, John Ayton, an eminent physician, was born at Cambridge in 1785. His educational career was marked by uncommon devotion to learning. At an age as early as fourteen he began the study of medicine under Dr Bradley of London. Entering Caius College in his native town in 1803, he made himself familiar with the classics, and dipped into chemistry and botany. Then he studied medicine at Edinburgh, and took his degree of M.D. at Cambridge, with so much credit, that in his twenty-third year he was appointed physician to the Westminster Hospital. After staying for a short time in London, Dr Paris settled at Penzance in Cornwall; and there a new field of study was opened up before his active mind. The physical character of the county induced him to devote his leisure hours to the pursuits of the geologist. He published several papers on geology, wrote a geological Guide to Mount's Bay and Land's End, and founded the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, one of the earliest societies of the kind in the kingdom. He also invented the "tamping-bar," an iron implement covered with copper, which miners can use without incurring the danger of striking fire from the rock, and igniting gunpowder or inflammable gas. In 1810 Dr Paris, returning to London, entered upon a long career of professional and scientific industry. His duties as a physician were performed with all the cheerful ardour of one who loves his calling for its own sake. At the same time, he laboured with the pen to promote medical science. His Pharmacologia, his Treatise on Diet, his Elements of Medical Chemistry, and his Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, written in conjunction with Fonblanque, were all produced amid the hurry of numerous engagements. The great eminence of Dr Paris was recognised with the high-
est honours. He was a D.C.L. of Oxford, and a fellow of the Royal Society and other learned societies in London. He was also president of the London College of Physicians, a position which he held from 1844 till his death in December 1856. Dr Paris was the author of an anonymous work entitled Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest, and of an excellent biography of his friend Sir Humphry Davy.