HALES, STEPHEN, D.D., was born at Beckeabourn, in Kent, September 7, 1677, entered of Benet College, Cambridge, in 1690, was elected Fellow in 1702; and having taken holy orders, was presented about 1710 to the perpetual curacy of Teddington, near Twickenham, where, though he obtained other church preferment, he resided to the end of his life. Ile was elected F.R.S. in 1717, and in 1753 was admitted a foreign associate of the Academie des Sciences in place of Sir Hans Sloane. He died in 1761.
During his residence at Cambridge he applied himself diligently to physical researches, which continued to be his favourite pursuit through life. His first important publication was ' Vegetable Statics, or an Account of some Statical Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables, Se.;' and he has the honour of having made the first essays towards the modern discoveries In vegetable physiology. This work, which is still referred to for excellent evidence concerning many facts in vege table physiology, obtained for him a foreign reputation, being trans lated into French, Italian, Dutch, and German. Ilinnanstatiese a similar treatise on the circulation of the blood, followed in 1733. Dr. Hales's genius was of a very practical turn : most of his numerous inventions and writings refer to some direct application of science to daily use. They comprehend anatomical and surgical treatises, analyses of medicines, experiments on the preservation of provisions during long voyages, the distillation of salt water, and the like ; with several sermons. Of all these labours the most brilliantly successful was his plan of ventilating prisons, the holds of ships, and other close and unhealthy places. Having bestowed great pains on this object, Le procured, in 1749, the erection of one of his machines in the Savoy prison ; and the benefit obtained is stated by Mr. Collineon to have been so great, "that though 50 or 100 in a year often died of the gaol distemper before, yet from 1749 to 1752 inclusive no more than four persons died, though in 1750 the number of prisoners was 240." By the introduction of his system into the old jail of Newgate the mortality was reduced iu the proportion of coven to sixteen. In Franco it was extensively adopted with similar beneficial result in prisons, hospitals, ships of war, the preservation of corn in granaries, &c. Numerous papers of Dr. lialea are printed in the ' Phil. Trans.' A list of his works will be found io Watt's Bibl. Britanne (Memoir, by Peter Collinson, in the 'Ann. Reg.,' 1764.) IIALFOltD, SIR HENRY, was born on the 2nd of October 1766, and was the son of Dr. James Vaughan, physician to the Infirmary at Leicester, and author of Observations ou Hydrophobia, on tho Cicsarean Section, and on the Effects of Cantharidea iu Paralytic Affections.' lie received hie early education at Rugby, and was after wards admitted at Christ Church, Oxford ; ho graduated iu medicine at Oxford in 1794, and was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians in the same year. Having been well introduced into
London society, and being distinguished for the elegance of his man ners, and having early married a daughter of Lord St. John, it was not long before his practice became considerable. He was appointed by George III. one of his physicians, and in 1809 he became possessed of a large fortune by the death of his mother's cousin, Sir Charles Raiford, and changed his name from Vaughan to Halford. He was made a baronet in the same peat. Sir Henry continued to hold the office of physician to George III. till the king's death, and subsequently held the same appointment under George IV., William IV., and Victoria. He was appointed president of the College of Physicians in 1S24, and delivered the oration on the occasion of that body removing from their old building in the city to the new one in Pall Mall.
During his professional career, Sir Henry was too much occupied with the kind of practice to which his early connections in life intro duced him, to contribute much valuable information to the literature of his profession. His publications consist of essays and orations. The Orations were delivered before the college, and are written in Latin, and exhibit a purity of style beyond the average of such pro ductions at the present day. His Essays are as follows :-1, On the Climacteric Disease; 2, ' On the Necessity of Caution in the Estimation of Symptoms in the last Stages of some Diseases ;' 3, On the Tic Douloureux ; 4, On Shakspere's Test of Insanity ; 5, 'On the Influ ence of some Diseases bf the Body on the Mind ; 6, ' On the Katicros of Aretmus ; 7, 'On the Treatment of Gout; 8, 'On Phlegmasia Helens ; 9, On thd Treatment of Insanity; 10, 'On the Death of some Illustrious Persons of Antiquity ; 11, On the Education of a Physician;' 12, 'On the Effects of Cold.' These essays and papers display the elegant scholar and observant physician, and are mostly written in an easy graceful style, but they are marked by no depth or originality of thought. In 1813 Sir Henry Halford descended with the Prince-Regent into the royal vaults of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, where amongst other curiosities they discovered tho head of Charles I. Of this visit and discovery Sir Henry has given an account, which is deposited in the British Museum, and is authenticated by the signatnre of the Prince-Regent He died on the 9th of March 1844. He had been for more than twenty years president of the College of Physicians,' and was mainly instrumental in establishing the evening meetings of that body. His urbanity of manners, and devotion to the interests of the college, have left a grateful recollection amongst the members of that corporation.
Portraits and Memoirs of Medical Men ; Transactions of Medical and Surgical Association, voL 1.)