PRINGLE. 177 to that success which the careless routineer ascribes to chance. A variety of papers from his pen now enriched the Philosophical Transactions ; one of the most remarkable contained his " Experiments upon Septic and Antiseptic Substances, with re- marks relating to their use in the Theory of Medi- cine," and Copley's gold medal was the reward of this ingenious investigation. Another gave an " Account of several persons seized with the Gaol Fever by working in Newgate, and of the manner by which the infection was communicated to one entire family." This communication was deemed so important by the eminent Dr. Stephen Hales, that he requested the author's permission to pub- lish it, for the common benefit of the kingdom, in the Gentleman's Magazine, — at that time by far the most popular literary vehicle in the country. A remarkable case of fragility, flexibility, and dissolution of the bones, — and a relation of the virtues of soap in dissolving the stone, — formed two of his next contributions to the society of which he was so distinguished an ornament. In 1752, he married a daughter of Dr. Oliver, an eminent physician of Bath, but this lady did not long participate in his increasing celebrity. About the time of his marriage appeared the first edition of the work which has stamped his name on the list of medical classics, and to which we have before alluded. This celebrated hook passed through, we believe, seven editions during the life of the author, and was trans- lated into German, French, and Italian, — dis- tinctions which were at that period not so easily accorded as at present. Few medical works have N
