MOIR, DAVID MACBETH, 1798-1851; b. at Musselburgh, Scotland; was educated at the grammar school. and at the age of 13 was apprenticed for four years to Dr. Stew. art, a medical practitioner. At the close of his apprenticeship he linislwd his course at Edinburgh, and received his diploma as surgeon in 1816. Towards the close of his col lege course he sent forth an anonymous publication entitled The Bombardment of Algiers and other Poems. In 1812 he appeared in print with two short essays in prose in a local mapzine. Returning home lie devoted himself to literature. In 1817 he joined Dr. Brown as a partner in an.exten,sive medical .MusselhurglE - His evenings and nights he spent in literary HaVing'preViousiy contributed'in prose and verse to the Scot's 3fagaztne and to Constable's Edinburgh .3fagazine, be became a constant con tributor in prose and verse to Blackwood's Magazine, which was started about that time. His verse was both comic and serious. Among his clever comic effusions were The Ere of St. Jerry and The Aancient Waggonere. llis serious poems had the signature A, from which he obtained the literary cognomen of Delta. His connection with Blackwood con tinued till his death. In 1823 he formed a strong friendship for John Galt, the novelist, who, being suddenly called off to America before finishing his novel The Last of the Lairds, commissioned Moir to write the concluding chapters for him. In 1824 he pub lished the The Legend of Genevieve and other Tales and Poems, comprising selections from his magazine articles, with some original additions. In 1824 he began in Black
wood his novel of The Autobidgraphy of _Mamie Wauch, which was continued for nearly three years, and published in a volume. Though urged to remove to the metropolis, where' he would have a more lucrative practice and a larger circle of literary friends, he preferred the scenes of his early days and his practice among the poor. his practice was so extensive that for ten successive years he never slept a night out of Musselburgh. In 1820 he published Outlines of the Ancient history of Medicine, being a View of the Railing Art among the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabians. In 1832 he greatly exerted himself to check the cholera, and published, as secretary of the board of health, Practical Observations on Malignant Cholera, and Proofs of the Contagion of Malignant Cholera. In 1843 he published Domestic Verses, in which be records with tenderness the loss of his two sons. In 1846 he was thrown from a carriage and rendered lame for life. In 1851 he delivered a course of six lectures on the poetical literature of the past half century at the Edinburgh philosophical institution, which were afterwards published. In the same year he published Selim, his last contribution to Blackwood's Magazine. His contributions to Blackwood alone number 370. The poems of Moir are graceful and pathetic. A :election of his poetical works iu two volumes w.:s published by Thomas Aird with a memoir of the author.