Concordance of the Bible, yet it affords a wonderful instance of what individual
industry may accomplish. The first Concordance which was compiled, is said
to have given employment to five hundred monks, yet did Cruden by his own
unassisted exertions produce one infinitely more complete, elaborate, and accurate than had ever appeared, and this not by copying from others, but by the most careful examination and study of the Bible. It is satisfactory to know
that the labour bestowed on this work did not go unrewarded. Although the first edition was for a long time unsuccessful, it was ultimately sold off, and in 1761, thirty years after its publication, a second edition was called for, which
he dedicated to George III. who was graciously pleased to order him a hundred pounds, and a third edition was published in 1769. For the second edition the publishers gave Cruden five hundred pounds, and when the third was called for, an additional present of three hundred pounds, besides twenty copies on fine paper. An edition was published in 1810, under the careful superintendence and correction of Mr David Bye, and in 1825, the work had reached the 10th edition. Indeed so valuable and useful is this work that it is now reckoned an indispensable part of every clerical library.
CRUICKSHANKS, William, F.R.S. an eminent surgeon in London, the assistant, partner, and successor of the famous Dr William Hunter of the Windmill Street Anatomical School, was the son of an officer in the excise, and was born at Edinburgh in the year 1745. After completing the elementary branches of his education at the schools of Edinburgh, he commenced the study of divinity at that university; but he soon forsook his clerical studies and directed his attention to medicine. With a view to that profession, he removed to Glasgow, where he went through a complete course of medical education at the university. Having devoted eight years of his life to assiduous study, he obtained, through the recommendation of Dr Pitcairn, the situation of librarian to Dr William Hunter of London; and so highly did that great man estimate his talents, that he soon after appointed him his assistant, and ultimately raised him to the honour of being his partner, in superintending his establishment in Windmill Street. On the death of Dr Hunter in the year 1783, the students of that institution thought so favourably of Mr Cruickshanks' professional acquirements, that they presented an address to him, and to the late Dr Baillie, requesting that they might assume the superintendence of the school; which they did.
Mr Cruickshanks is known to the world by his medical publications; and as a teacher and writer he acquired a high reputation for his knowledge of anatomy and physiology. In the year 1786, he published his principal work "The Anatomy of the absorbent vessels of the Human Body," a production of acknowledged merit, which has been translated into several languages. He also wrote an ingenious paper on the nerves of living animals, which establishes the important fact of the regeneration of mutilated nerves. This paper, however, although read before the Royal Society, was not published in the transactions of that body until several years afterwards. This delay was owing to the interference of Sir John Pringle, who conceived that Mr Cruickshanks had controverted some of the opinions of the great Haller. In the year 1797, Mr Cruickshanks was elected fellow of the Royal Society. In 1799, he made his experiments on insensible perspiration, which he added to his work on the absorbent vessels. He had suffered for many years from acute pain in the head, and although warned that this pain arose from extravasated blood settled upon the sensorium, and that the greatest abstinence in his regimen was indispensable in order to prevent fatal consequences, yet, regardless of this warning, he continued to live freely; and as had been foreseen, he was cut off suddenly in
