GARTH, SAMCEL, an eminent physician, and a poet of considerable reputation, was b. at Bolam, in the c. of Durham, in 1660. He was a member of Pcterhouse, Cam bridge, and graduated as M.D. in 1691. In the following year he settled in London, and was admitted into the college of physicians, in which institution he subsequently held several important offices. His professional skill was associated with great conversational powers, and he soon acquired a very extensive practice. The year 1700 presents an inci dent in G.:8 life which did him everlasting honor. He it was who stepped forward to provide a Suitable interment in Westminster abbey for the neglected corpse of Dryden, which lie caused to be brought to the college in Warwick lane; and he pronounced a eulogium over the great poet's remains. On the accession of George I., he received the honor of knighthood, was appointed physician in ordinary to the king, and physician general to the army. He died,in London, Jan. 18, 1718.
G. is best known in our literary history as the author of The Dispensary, a poetical satire on the apothecaries and those physicians who sided with them in opposing the project of giving medicine gratuitously to the sick poor. The sketches of some of his
contemporaries—as, for instance, Drs. Gould, Tyson, and How, who are introduced into the poem as " obsequious Umbra," " slow Carus," and " shrill Querpo "—are severe; and although, doubtless, exaggerated by poetic license, must have been true to nature., or the work could not have obtained such an immediate and extensive circulation. The first edition came out in 1699, and the second and third followed in the course of a very few months. In 1706, he brought out the sixth edition with considerable additions. In 1715, he published a poem entitled Claremont, and in 1717 he superintended and contribu ted to a translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis by some of the most eminent writers of that age—Addison, Pope, Gay, Congreve, and Rowe being amongst the contributors.
Pope frequently refers to him, both in his letters and in his poems, with great respect: • "And we, too, boast our Garth and Addison." The second Pastoral was dedicated to G.; and in a letter to Jervis in 1718, Pope states that he entertains " the truest concern for his loss." •