176 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. information to them that lie had given express orders to his troops to forbear from disturbing them. This noble agreement was rigidly observed by both parties dm-ing that campaign. When deprived of the presence of Lord Stair, who soon retired from the command, Pringle re- commended himself so well to the Duke of Cum- berland, as to receive from his hands, in 1745, a commission appointing him physician-general to our forces in the Low Countries, and other parts beyond sea ; and, on the following day, he was presented with a second commission from the Duke, as physician to the royal hospitals in these countries. Finding himself now permanently em- ployed, he resigned his professorship at Edinburgh, which had been continued under his name by assistants. In 1745 he was recalled to England to attend the forces which were to be sent against the Scotch malcontents. He was about the same time chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1747 and 1748 he again accompanied the troops abroad, and after the conclusion of the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle finally established himself in London, where his connexions and active exertions soon raised him into extensive practice. In 1749 he was appointed i^hysician in ordinary to the Duke of Cumberland ; and in 1750, he published, in a letter to Dr. Mead, his Observations on the Gaol or Hosjntal Fever. This essay was occasioned by the gaol distemper, which prevailed at that time in London, and in his choice of this theme for his first literary effort we perceive that skill in availing himself of the circumstance of the moment which usually characterizes superior minds, and conducts
