Memoir of JOHN FROST, ESQ. Y.R.S.ED. F.A.S. F.L 8. F.H.S. ETC. ETC. (With a Portrait.) AMIDST the numerous excellencies to which England is indebted for its exalted rank among the nations of the earth, its acuteness in discovering promising talents emerging from obscurity, its readiness to foster rising genius, and its promptitude to reward sterling merit, can never be considered either as insignificant or unimportant. In every department of science, instances occur to verify the truth of these remarks. The pulpit, the senate, the field, the bar, can each furnish ornaments of this description, and a considerable portion of our biography applies almost exclusively to individuals rising from obscurity by the instinctive vigour of their natural abilities, and forcing their way into enviable distinctinction. Here they take their stand on some conspicuous eminence, and diffuse around them a sacred light, which is at once beneficial to the community, advantageous to themselves, and honourable to the country which gave them birth. But it is not to the development of superior talents in humble life, that the cherishing hand of liberal patronage, and munificent remuneration, has been exclusively confined. Merit in the more exalted stations of life, is never suffered to pine in unnoticed languor; and in the middling ranks of the community, superior talents are soon drawn from their retreats, and transplanted into a soil more congenial with their nature, and more favourable to their growth and fruitfulness. This last position, a biographical sketch of the gentleman whose portrait accompanies this article, will fully illustrate. Mr. JOHN FROST was the son of Mr. William Frost, a highly respectable grocer of Cockspur-street, Charing Cross, where, for many years, he pursued his business with credit and advantage. Here the son, who was a twin, and a seven-months child, was born in the year 1803. There were several other children, but at present, this is the only surviving branch of the family. 119.-VOL. X. [1828. Having obtained at home the rudiments of education, on leaving the paternal roof, he was placed at Langley House school near Windsor, where he acquired a competent knowledge of the classics, and made a proficiency in general learning. The particular bent of genius it is sometimes as difficult to trace, as it is to ascertain its early development. Genius has been defined to be good natural talents accidentally determined. Yet all must allow, that in certain individuals, there is an undefinable attachment to particular pursuits, a predisposition to investigate some peculiar class of objects, in the following of which a greater proficiency may be expected, than if the mind had been destined to travel in another tract, for which it felt no such predilection. Be this, however, as it may, Mr. Frost at a very early age was strongly prepossessed in favour of medical science; and when he afterwards turned his attention to botanical researches, the medical virtues of the vegetable kingdom, always held in his estimation a predominant rank. Following this propensity of inclination, in the year 1818 he was entered as a pupil with Mr. Brookes the celebrated anatomist, with Mr. Brande the distinguished chemist, and with Dr. Pearson. At the same time he obtained a knowledge of pharmaceutical preparations by assisting Mr. Wallett, the late well-known apothecary to Bethlem Hospital. He subsequently became a pupil of Dr. Monro and of Sir George Tuthill, the physicians of Bethlem, and attended their practice in that hospital for three years. Having turned his attention to the study of plants, Mr. Frost soon made himself acquainted with the principles of botanical science; and finding how much medical botany had been neglected throughout the country, in the year 1821 he instituted the Medico-Botanical Society, which has met with unexampled support from many of the most distinguished characters in the nation. This society has lately been honoured with the names of several of the Royal Family, and above all, by the transcendent patronage of His present Majesty. 3 P. 973 Memoir of John Frost, Esq. F. R. S. Ed. &c. Having thus, by unremitting industry and unwearied application, excited the favourable notice of scientific men, Mr. Frost, in 1822, was chosen by Dr. George Pearson to deliver lectures on botany in his justly celebrated theatre. In 1823, Mr. Frost was elected, at the request of the late Sir James Edward Smith, to deliver a course of lectures on botany in the Royal Institution. In this he acquitted himself so well, as to receive the flattering approbation of the then distinguished president, Earl Spencer. In 1824, Mr. Frost was again chosen to deliver another course of lectures in the same institution. This circumstance furnishes a more decisive testimony in his favour than any language of approbation could express. During the same year, he was elected an honorary member of the Medical Society of Baltimore in America, as a mark of respect for his judicious observations, on various medicines, which appeared in the medical journals of the day. The connexion of Mr. Frost with the Royal Institution, and the conspicuous rank, which as a lecturer he sustained, soon opened for him a more extensive list of acquaintance, and introduced him to the principal and most distinguished cultivators of botanical science. The advantages resulting from this introduction, he neither hesitated to embrace, nor neglected to improve. On every favourable opportunity he contrived to levy a contribution, that might increase his stores of botanical knowledge, and few opportunities were permitted to pass, that did not augment his acquisition. Nor were his daily acquirements suffered to pass by unnoticed and unrewarded. Towards the end of 1824, Mr. Frost was elected to the honourable and important office of secretary to the Royal Humane Society. In 1825, he became a Fellow of the Antiquarian and Linnæan Societies, and a member of the Royal Institution. In 1827 he was chosen to lecture on Botany at St. Thomas's Hospital, and during the present year, the Royal Society of Edinburgh have honoured him by their choice. The present year has also been distinguished by his having presented to the MedicoBotanical Society, the whole of his Herbarium, consisting of many thousand specimens of exotic and other plants; and a short time since, the Emperor of the Brazils was pleased to appoint him a Knight of the Imperial Order of the Cross, as a token of his majesty's high esteem and consideration for that society. 974 From the date which records the period of his birth, it will be seen, that Mr. Frost is still a very young man. This circumstance furnishes a sufficient reason, why the public have been but partially favoured with the result of his indefatigable researches. Among men of science this result is, however, well known, and duly appreciated. This may be gathered from the numerous titles with which he has been invested, and the various marks of honourable distinction which are associated with his name, and which very few at his age have been permitted to acquire. His lectures, however, having found their way into the world, are not likely to remain unknown, wherever botany is cultivated as a science. His oration, delivered before the Medico-Botanical Society of London on the 13th of October, 1826, (which has been published at their request, and dedicated by permission to His late Royal Highness the Duke of York,) contains a brief outline of the objects which the society has in view, and of the ends to which all its energies are directed. Another oration delivered by Mr. Frost before the same society on the 12th of October, 1827, and dedicated by permission to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, enters still more fully into the designs of the society, urges the necessity of cultivating the science of botany in reference to medicine, and enforces the study, both from the advantages which had already resulted from it, and the extensive communications with similar institutions in foreign countries, that they had happily opened. This oration also expatiates on the increasing patronage which the society was daily acquiring, from the acquisition of new members, at once capable of rendering it pecuniary support, and of enriching its scientific stores. In an introductory lecture to a course on botany, delivered in the theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, dedi. cated to His Majesty, and published during the present year, Mr. Frost enters largely into the history of botanical researches, giving in detail the discoveries that have been made in different periods, and nam ing the individuals who have distinguished themselves in former years. In this, he traces the strong resemblance that in many instances subsists between animals and plants, in both of which the wisdom, goodness, and power of an all-wise Creator are always apparent. On the 27th of March, 1828, Mr. Frost had the honour of presenting the preceding introductory lecture to his Majesty, and he now enjoys the satisfac tion of knowing that it was most graciously received. Of the Medico-Botanical Society of London, the transactions are now regularly published. These contain much valuable information, not merely in reference to the local events which occur within the range of its immediate operations, but in respect of | others that take place in various parts of the world. The intercourse opened with Mexico, and numerous places in South America, and the communications with the East, promise to deposit in this society a concentration of all that is valuable to medicine in the botanical region. The committee of correspondence of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, hold out every inducement of communication to distant individuals, manifesting at once a readiness to receive any vegetable production that may be deemed beneficial to medicine, and to furnish information on such topics as the correspondent may require. Of the course of lectures on botany, delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital, the following is an outline of the plan : "DIVISION I. "History of the science; its application to arts, and medicine. Definition of a plant; its structure and organization; functions of absorption, transpiration, and secretion. Chemical changes to which it is liable. Proximate principles and elements of plants considered. Different theories of vegetable physiology. "DIVISION II. "Arrangement of plants in artificial and natural systems by Linnæus and De Jussieu. Illustrations of the classification of Linnæus. Explanation of generic and specific characters of plants. Nomenclature and localities considered. 66 DIVISION III. "Medical Botany; which comprehends the plants contained in the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeia, a knowledge of which is essential to the student in medicine. Preparations of plants for pharmaceutical purposes. Modes of exsiccating plants for an Hortus Siccus: and conclusion of the course." In 1827, Mr. Frost published a pamphlet, containing remarks on the Mustard-tree mentioned in the New Testament, dedicated by permission to the Lord Bishop of London. After quoting the opinions of various authors respecting the plant, shrub, or tree, mentioned in Matthew xiii. 31, 32, and stating his objections against the positions they have advanced and the conclusions they have drawn, he proceeds to notice that the Phytolacca dodecandria is most probably the tree to which the sacred writer alludes. In support of this opinion, he advances the following reasons. "1. Because it is one of the largest trees in the country where the observation was made. 2. Because it has the smallest seed of any tree in that country. 3. Because it is used both as a culinary vegetable and medicinal stimulant, which common mustard is also. 4. Because a species of the same genus is well known in the United States by the term 'wild mustard.' 5. Because the ultimate chemical elements of the seed Sinapis nigra and Phytolacca dodecandria are the same." In the preceding observations, it cannot be denied that many striking coincidences are pointed out, and that much ingenuity is displayed in their arrangement. This perhaps, on such a subject, is the utmost that we have any reason to expect, as all must admit that demonstration can never be acquired; and those who are resolved to suspend their assent until this is attained, bid fair to end their days in scepticism. Throughout the whole of Mr. Frost's lectures and orations, the Great First Cause is always kept in view. In the organization of plants, and the delicate structure of flowers, he discovers power and wisdom happily combined. His researches into the arcana of nature lead him up ture's God," and teach him to hail discovery with reverence, and to blend science with adoration. to na THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN HOLINESS. (Concluded from col. 890.) THE work of sanctification commences in the soul, when, by the power of the holy Spirit, the sinner obtains an awakening and painful discovery of his guilt and danger. Sometimes this discovery is sudden, at other times gradual. It is often attended with the most pungent distress, and always with such an abhorrence of sin, as leads to its entire renunciation. His mind is principally affected at first with a sense of the wrath of God, and his immediate danger of damnation: hence, he eagerly inquires, "What must I do to be saved?" But he learns that, "Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man," and that whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of his sins, and be interested in all the benefits and blessings of the atonement. Cheered by these gracious declarations, he struggles to lay hold of the promise, and at length, by the assistanc |