the medical books was not kept, and in 1893 Sir Charles Wathen, then Mayor of Bristol, undertook to pay off the debts of the institution on condition that the shareholders presented the building and its contents to the city. Thus the whirligig of time has brought about its revenges, and the property of the unscrupulous and overreaching Library Society, which had ousted the citizens from their rights, became the property of the city, which thus finds itself possessed of a valuable collection of books that had been selected by the society with much judgment. The present Medical Library in Bristol, begun in 1891, now has the custody of the books which belonged to the former Medical Library, and which have passed through so many vicissitudes of ownership. From the example of the shareholders of the Museum and Library, of Sir Charles Wathen, and more recently of Sir W. H. Wills and others, modern Bristol has no reason to fear that local patriotism and munificence will not be forthcoming to supplement in the future the miserably small rate from which the literary and scientific wants of the people have at present to be supplied.

It will be seen, then, that the King Street Library, which was at the service of the visitors to the Hotwells a little more than a century ago, was a subscription one, admission to which was at first an entrance fee of 21s. and an annual contribution of 21s. From time to time the terms were varied. At the beginning of this century they were "84s. at entrance, besides a guinea in hand and a guinea annually”. In 1816 they were "a deposit of £8 8s., and an annual subscription of 31s. 6d," and in 1825, with the subscription at the same amount, members had to pay "ten guineas at entrance, besides a guinea in hand”.

When the popularity of the Hotwells was great, the librarian was the Rev. Thomas Johnes, who was also chaplain to the infirmary. It was then necessary that the librarian should be a clergyman, but after his time this ceased to be a condition of the appointment, and the Council have no doubt been careful to see that his successors possess the virtues of both the offices which were united in their eighteenth-century forerunner. The daily attendance of the

librarian was from 11 till 2 and from 6 till 9, except on Saturdays when it was from 11 till 3 only. I can find no record of the holidays which were granted to him, but it is not likely that he was so well off in this respect as the fortunate holders of appointments in the Custom House and other Government offices who had, in addition to the great ecclesiastical seasons, three days in Easter and Whitsun weeks, and twenty-nine other days, being those Holy Days of the Church which have a special Collect, Epistle and Gospel, and various days connected with great national events.1 It is too much to hope that these holidays will ever be granted to the public librarian, but it would not be unreasonable if he were to be absolved from work on at least St. George's Day, and the days which commemorate the birth and accession of the reigning monarch.

The Episcopal Library of the period was on the south side of the Cathedral, in a building which had been repaired

1 List of holidays observed at the Custom House in addition to Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Holy Thursday and three days in Easter and Whitsun weeks.

and partly rebuilt by Bishop Butler in 1744. Nearly the whole of this and its contents were destroyed by fire in the Reform Riots of 1831.

Chatterton had been dead nineteen years when Shiercliff's Guide was first issued in 1789. In its fourth edition, published in 1809, it is said that "the extraordinary abilities, life, and praise of Chatterton rose an emulation for poetic fame in the breasts of several youths of Bristol, particularly Southey, Coleridge, Cottle, Lovell, etc.". Southey was born in Wine Street, Bristol, in 1774, four years after Chatterton's death. In 1803, in conjunction with Joseph Cottle (introduced by Canning in the Anti-Jacobin, and whose brother Amos is immortalised in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers), Southey edited Chatterton's poems, and wrote a preface explaining the conditions under which the work appeared. The intimate connection of Southey and Coleridge, both literary and pantisocratic, are too well known to need more than mention, but it is appropriate to call attention to the fact that whilst they were lodging together in College Street they were frequent visitors to the Bristol Library. From the researches of two members of this Association, Mr. James Baker (Chambers's Journal, 1st February, 1890), and Mr. Norris Mathews (The Library, vol. v., 1893), we know what books they took out as well as those which were borrowed by other eminent men, among whom may be mentioned Humphry Davy, who was then an assistant in the Pneumatic Institution which Dr. Beddoes had opened in Dowry Square at the Hotwells in 1798 for the treatment of diseases by inhalation. It was at this institution that Davy discovered the properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

But the glories of the Hotwells were now about to vanish. Soon after 1790, when new arrangements were made between the Merchants' Society and the tenant, necessitating on the latter's part a considerable charge for drinking the water, the mere pleasure-seekers departed to other places, and the Hotwells was the resort of invalids only, and although the

1 The application of the treatment was made the subject of one of Gillray's

caricatures.

praises of the site from the invalid's point of view were sounded in 1800 by Dr. William Saunders in his book on mineral waters, and endorsed by Dr. William Nisbet in 1804 in A Medical Guide for the Invalid, it was all of no avail. In spite of better facilities of approach, and the building of an improved Pump Room and the provision of better baths, the place became practically deserted, and in 1816, according to Dr. Carrick, " many houses and even whole rows are unoccupied ". River improvements necessitated the demolition of the new Pump Room in 1867. The decay of the Hotwells as a fashionable resort seems to date from the Merchants' Society's new lease in 1790, and the exorbitant charges which were then the rule for all visitors' requirements; but its end no doubt was hastened, as Mr. Latimer points out, by the quieter condition of European politics which enabled persons to visit the continental spas in safety.

A vigorous and well-meant effort to restore the glories connected with the Hotwell spring has within the last few years been made by the erection of the Clifton Spa, an institution replete with modern luxury, and thoroughly equipped with an elaborate system of baths.

Probably most of us manifest some impatience at the travelling delays of our journeys. From the Guide of 1789 we learn that Bristol was well provided with means of transit. London of course received the greatest amount of attention. On five days of the week, six coaches, and on the other two days, four coaches, started to make the journey in from sixteen hours to a day and a half. Those who have come to Bristol by way of the Severn Tunnel may be interested to know that Shiercliff's Guide gives very explicit directions for travellers when to pass the Severn :

As the crossing depends on the winds, it is necessary to observe, that they distinguish but two Winds for passing, viz.: Winds below, and Winds above.

Winds below, are when it blows up the river Southerly or Westerly. With these you may pass during the ebb or going out of the tide, which is seven hours.

Winds above, are when it blows down the river Northerly or Easterly. With these there is five hours passing on the flood or coming in of the tide. When the wind is S.E. or N.W. it is directly across

the river, therefore, you must be at the passage where you intend to cross an hour before high water, as they can only go over then, and that but once, there being no passage during the flood or ebb.

.

A table is added by which travellers may know at what hours to pass every day in the year.

I close this part of my subject by quoting from the 1809 edition of Shiercliff's Guide a passage which I hope our visitors will be able to endorse out of their own experience as applicable to our present condition: "The state of society in Bristol, which is doubtless a criterion of its literature, is as polished and liberal as at any city in these kingdoms. Its inhabitants are as enlightened, its police as

regular, its character as rational."

From the matters I have brought to your notice, it is an easy transition to others which, though purely medical, have a general and historical interest. Probably few, if any, public libraries are without some literature referring to William Harvey, whose labours in connection with the circulation of the blood are so well known, and to Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, whom we look upon as a local man, and whose inestimable services to the health of the community are recognised by all except those who are unable to appreciate the value of overwhelming evidence.

I show two interesting volumes of Harvey's works. The first is a facsimile in autotype reproduction of the MSS. of his Prelectiones Anatomica Universalis. The second is his book Anatomical Exercitations concerning the Generation of Living Creatures. In this state having the portrait it is very rare. In one of Quaritch's recent catalogues a copy without the portrait is priced at £7 10s., and this note is added: Extremely rare. Unmentioned by Lowndes. Mr. Hazlitt remarks, 'It is said that only 150 copies were printed, and of these 115 were destroyed'. A perfect copy fetched £40 10s. at Sotheby's in 1892."

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A few years ago at one of our Bristol Exhibitions there was a Jenner collection, an account of which appeared in the British Medical Journal, 13th January, 1894. We have nothing to rival that, but we have got together several portraits of him as represented by various artists, which