DR WILLIAM, known to the public by a volume containing Clinical and Anatomical Observations, with some curious Experiments on Diet, was born at Manchester in the month of July 1740; but the family from which he sprang was Scotch, and respectable for its antiquity. His grandfather John Stark of Killermont was a covenanter; and having appeared in arms against his sovereign at the battle of Bothwel bridge in the year 1679, became obnoxious to the government, and, to conceal himself, withdrew into Ireland. There is reason to believe that he had not imbibed either the extravagant zeal or the savage manners of the political and religious party to which he adhered; for after residing a few years in the country which he had chosen for the scene of his banishment, he married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Stewart, Esq. of Balydrone in the north of Ireland; who, being descended of the noble family of Galloway, would not probably have matched his daughter to such an exile as a ruthless fanatic of the last century. By this lady Mr Stark had several children; and his second son Thomas, who settled at Manchester as a wholesale linen-draher, and married Margaret Stirling, daughter of William Stirling, Esq. of Northwoodside, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, was the father of the subject of this article. Another of his sons, the reverend John Stark, was minister of Lecropt in Perthshire; and it was under the care of this gentleman that our author received the rudiments of his education, which, when we consider the character of the matter, and reflect on the relation between him and his pupil, we may presume was calculated to store the mind of Dr Stark with those virtuous principles which influenced his conduct through life.

From Leocroft young Stark was sent to the university of Glasgow, where, under the tuition of the doctors Smith and Black, with other eminent masters, he learned the rudiments of science, and acquired that mathematical accuracy, that logical precision, and that contempt of hypotheses, with which he prosecuted all his future studies. Having chosen physic for his profession, he removed from the university of Glasgow to that of Edinburgh, where he was soon distinguished, and honoured with the friendship of the late Dr Cullen; a man who was not more eminently conspicuous for the superiority of his own genius, than quick-fighted in perceiving, and liberal in encouraging, genius in his pupils. Having finished his studies at Edinburgh, though he took there no degree, Mr Stark, in the year 1765, went to London, and devoted himself entirely to the study of physic and the elements of surgery; and looking upon anatomy as one of the principal pillars of both these arts, he endeavoured to complete with Dr Hunter what he had begun with Dr Monro; and under these two eminent professors he appears to have acquired a high degree of anatomical knowledge. He likewise entered himself about this time a pupil at St George's hospital; for being disgusted, as he often confessed, with the inaccuracy or want of candour observable in the generality of practical writers, he determined to obtain an acquaintance with diseases at a better school and from an abler master; and to have from his own experience a standard, by which he might judge of the experience of others. With what industry he prosecuted this plan, and with what success his labours were crowned, may be seen in a series of Clinical and Anatomical Observations, which were made by him during his attendance at the hospital, and were published after his death by his friend Dr Carmichael Smyth. These observations give the public no cause to complain of want of candour in their author; for whatever delicacy he may have observed, when relating the cases of patients treated by other physicians, he has related those treated by himself with the utmost impartiality. Whilst attending the hospital, he likewise employed himself in making experiments on the blood, and other animal fluids; and also in a course of experiments in chemical pharmacy; but though accounts of these experiments were left behind him, we believe they have not yet been given to the public.

In the year 1767 Mr Stark went abroad, and obtained the degree of M. D. in the university of Leyden, publishing an inaugural dissertation on the dysentery. On his return to London, he recommenced his studies at the hospital; and when Dr Black was called to the chemical chair in Edinburgh, which he has long filled with so much honour to himself and credit to the university, Dr Stark was solicited by several members of the university of Glasgow to stand a candidate for their professorship of the theory and practice of physic, rendered vacant by Dr Black's removal to Edinburgh. This however Dr Stark declined, being influenced by the advice of his English friends, who wished to detain him in London, and having likewise some prospects of an appointment in the hospital.

In the mean time he had commenced (1769) a series of experiments on diet, which he was encouraged to undertake by Sir John Pringle and Dr Franklin, whose friendship he enjoyed, and from whom he received many hints respecting both the plan and its execution. These experiments, or rather the imprudent zeal with which he prosecuted them, proved, in the opinion of his friends, fatal to himself; for he began them on the 12th of July 1769 in perfect health and vigour, and from that day, though his health varied, it was seldom if ever good, till the 23d of February 1770, when he died, after suffering much uneasiness. His friend and biographer Dr Smyth thinks, that other causes, particularly chagrin and disappointment, had no small share in hastening his death; and as the Doctor was intimately acquainted with his character and disposition, his opinion is probably well-founded, though the pernicious effects of the experiments are visible in Dr Stark's own journal. When he entered upon them, the weight of his body was 12 stone 3 lb. avoirdupois, which in a very few days was reduced to 11 stone 10 lb. 8 oz.; and though some kinds of food increased it, by much the greater part of what he used had a contrary effect, and it continued on the whole to decrease till the day of his death. This indeed can excite no wonder. Though the professed object of his experiments was to prove that a pleasant and varied diet is equally conducive to health with a more strict and simple one, most of the dishes which he ate during these experiments were neither pleasant nor simple, but compounds, such as every stomach must nauseate. He began with bread and water; from which he proceeded to bread, water, and sugar; then to bread, water, and oil of olives; then to bread and water with milk; afterwards he tried bread and water with roasted goose; bread and water with boiled beef; stewed lean of beef with the gravy and water without bread; stewed lean of beef with the gravy, oil of fat or suet and water; flour, oil of suet, water and salt; flour, water, and salt; and a number of others infinitely more disagreeable to the stomach than even these, such as bread, fat of bacon ham, infusion of tea with sugar; and bread or flour with honey and the infusion of rosemary. But though we consider Dr Stark's experiments as whimsical, it cannot be denied that they indicate eccentricity of genius in the person who made them; and such of our readers as think genius hereditary, may perhaps be of opinion, that he derived a ray from the celebrated Napier the inventor of the logarithms, who was his ancestor by both parents. At any rate, these experiments, of which a full account is given in the same volume with his clinical and anatomical observations, display an uncommon degree of fortitude, perseverance, self-denial, and zeal for the promoting of useful knowledge in their author; and with respect to his moral character, we believe it is with great justice that Dr Smyth compares him to Cato, by applying to him what was said of that virtuous Roman by Sallust—"Non divitias cum divite, neque faciiones cum faciolo; sed cum strenuo virtute, cum modesto pudore, cum innocente abilientia certabat; esse, quam videri, bonus malebat *."