Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

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Malloch had the happiness of a wife who had faith
enough. She believed that her husband was the
greatest poet and wit of the age. Sometimes she
would seize his hand and kiss it with rapture, and
if the looks of a friend expressed any surprise, would
apologize that it was the dear hand that wrote those
divine poems. She was lamenting to a lady how
much the reputation of her husband suffered by his
name being so frequently confounded with that of
Dr. Smollett. The lady answered, 'Madam, there
is a short remedy; let your husband keep his own
name.' "
"When Pope published his Essay on Man, but
concealed the author, Mallet entering one day, Pope
asked him slightly what there was new. Mallet
told him that the newest piece was something called
an Essay on Man, which he had inspected idly, and
seeing the utter inability of the author, who had
neither skill in writing nor knowledge of the subject,
had tossed it away. Pope, to punish his self-conceit,
told him the secret."
"Mallet's conversation," says Dr. Johnson, "was
elegant and easy, his works are such as a writer,
bustling in the world, showing himself in public,
and emerging occasionally from time to time into
notice, might keep alive by his personal influence;
but which, conveying but little information, and
giving no great pleasure, must soon give way, as the
succession of things produces new topics of conversa-
tion and other modes of amusement."
A daughter, by his first wife, named Cilesia, who
was married to an Italian of rank, wrote a tragedy
called Almida, which was acted at Drury Lane
theatre. She died at Genoa in 1790.
MANSFIELD, EARL OF. See MURRAY (WIL-
LIAM).
MARCHMONT, EARL OF. See HUME (PAT-
RICK).
MARISCHAL, EARL.   See KEITH (GEORGE).
MARSHALL, HENRY, M. D. This distinguished
medical practitioner, whose observant habits and in-
defatigable application were so successfully employed
in improving the health of the British army, was born
in the parish of Kilsyth, in 1775. Although his
father was a man of humble station and slender
means he was not sparing in the expense of educa-
tion, so that two of his sons enjoyed the benefit of a
college training. Of these Henry, who was a medi-
cal student, was appointed in May, 1803, surgeon's-
mate in the royal navy, but he left that service in
September of the following year, and in January,
1805, was appointed assistant-surgeon to the Forfar-
shire regiment of militia. In April, 1806, he became
assistant-surgeon to the first battalion of the 89th
regiment, with which he embarked in February, 1807,
for South America, and subsequently to the Cape
of Good Hope and Ceylon. But already he was
distinguished by that observant spirit, and those
habits of systematic application, which he so effec-
tually brought to bear upon his own department
of the medical profession, and the health and com-
forts of the British soldier. "We find him," writes
his biographer,1 "when a mere lad at the Cape, in
the beginning of the century, making out tables of
the diseases of the soldiers, of the comparative health
of different stations, and ages, and climates; investi-
gating the relation of degradation, ignorance, crime,
1 John Brown, M.D., from whose article "Dr. Henry Mar-
shall and Military Hygiene," in series first of Hor� Subseciv�,
the particulars of this biographical sketch are derived.
and ill-usage, to the efficiency of the army and to its
cost; and from that time to the last day of his life
devoting his entire energies to devising and doing
good to the common soldier. And all this, to say
the least of it, without much assistance from his own
department (the medical) till the pleasant time came
when the harvest was to be reaped, and the sheaves
taken victoriously home."
In May, 1809, Dr. Marshall was appointed assist-
ant-surgeon to the 2d Ceylon regiment, and in April,
1813, promoted to be surgeon of the 1st Ceylon regi-
ment. Although removed to the staff at the close of
the latter year, he continued to serve in the island
till the spring of 1821, when he returned home, and
was soon after appointed to the staff of North Britain,
with Edinburgh for his principal station. In 1823
he was removed from Edinburgh to Chatham, and
in April, 1825, was appointed to the recruiting depot,
Dublin. During 1829 he was attached to the war
office; and in 1830, by Lord Hardinge, secretary-at-
war, he was promoted to the rank of deputy-in-
spector of hospitals. With this his active service
in the army was ended, and he was placed on half-
pay.
In the summer of 1832, and when he had reached
his fifty-seventh year, usually considered a perilous
approach to old age, Dr. Marshall married Anne,
eldest daughter of James Wingate, Esq., of West-
shiels, and the union was such a happy one, that he
often termed it the best earthly blessing of a long
and happy life. "I got," he added, "what I was in
search of for forty years, and I got this at the very
time it was best for me, and I found it to be better
and more than I ever during these forty long years had
hoped for." Even though no children blessed the
union, this happy domestic life was extended to a
greater length than could have been anticipated, as
his death occurred on the 5th of May, 1851, at Edin-
burgh, where he had lived for many years. When
this event arrived it found him cheerful and happy,
and his dying words were a grateful acknowledg-
ment of the blessings which had thrown a continual
sunshine upon his lengthened career. " In many
respects," he said, "I consider myself one of the
most fortunate individuals who ever belonged to the
medical department of the army. Through a long
life I have enjoyed almost uninterrupted good health,
and my duties have been a pleasure to me. Having
generally had some literary undertaking on hand,
more or less connected with military hygiene, I have
enjoyed much intellectual gratification. 'To labour
diligently, and to be content (says the son of Sirach),
is a sweet life.' My greatest delight has been to pro-
mote amelioration of the condition of soldiers, and
in the prosecution of this important object I hope
I have done some good. I have much reason to be
grateful to divine Providence for the many blessings
I have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy. Although
my elementary education was extremely limited, my
professional instruction defective, and my natural
talents moderate, I have no reason to complain of
my progress and standing in the service. Every step
of advancement which I gained in the army was ob-
tained without difficulty. When I look back upon my
progress in life, it seems to me that I have been led
'in a plain path,' and that my steps have been
'ordered.'"
In this sketch we have briefly detailed in their
consecutive order the principal events of the life of
Dr. Henry Marshall. But the most important por-
tion of his biography has still to be added: this was
the history of his authorship, which was directed
from the beginning to the close with singleness of eye
and aim to his life's great purpose, and as he himself