In 1747, Mr Moore, desirous
of adding to the professional knowledge which he had already acquired, by
visiting a new and wider field of experience, proceeded to the continent,
under the protection of the duke of Argyle, to whom he had procured an
introduction. The duke, then a commoner, was lieutenant-colonel of a
regiment of foot, and was about to embark for Flanders to serve under the
duke of Cumberland, who was there in command of the allied army. On arriving
at Maestricht, he attended the military hospitals there, in the capacity of
mate, and found abundance of practice, as these receptacles were filled with
soldiers, wounded at the battle of Laffeldt, which had just been fought. In
consequence of a recommendation which he soon after obtained from Mr
Middleton, director-general of the military hospitals, to the earl of
Albemarle, Mr Moore removed to Flushing, where he again attended the
military hospitals. From this duty, however, he was almost immediately
called to the assistance of the surgeon of the Coldstream foot guards, of
which regiment his new patron, the earl of Albemarle, was colonel. With this
corps, Mr Moore, after passing the autumn of 1747 in Flushing, removed to
Breda, where he spent the winter in garrison. In the summer of the following
year, a peace having been in the mean time concluded, he returned to England
with general Braddock.
Although thus fairly on the
world, and in possession of very considerable experience in his profession,
Mr Moore was yet only in the seventeenth year of his age. After remaining
some time in London, during which he attended the anatomical lectures of his
celebrated countryman, Dr Hunter, he went to Paris, to acquire what
knowledge might be afforded by an attendance on the hospital and medical
lectures of that city, then reckoned the best school in Europe. Fortunately
for Mr Moore, his early patron, the earl of Albemarle, was at this time
residing in Paris, as ambassador from the court of Great Britain. Mr Moore
lost no time in waiting upon his excellency, who, having always entertained
the highest opinion of his merits, immediately appointed him surgeon to his
household. He had thus an opportunity afforded him of enjoying the first
society in Paris, being at all times a welcome guest at the table of the
ambassador.
After residing nearly two
years in the French capital, Mr Moore was invited by his first master, Dr
Gordon, to return to Glasgow, and to enter into partnership with him in his
business. With this invitation he thought it advisable to comply, and soon
after left Paris. He returned, however, by the way of London, where he
remained a few months for the purpose of attending another course of Dr
Hunter’s lectures, together with those of Dr Smellie on midwifery. From
London he proceeded to Glasgow, when the proposed connexion with Dr Gordon
immediately took place. This connexion continued for two years. At the end
of that period, his partner having received a diploma, confined himself
solely to the practice of physic, while Mr Moore continued the business of a
surgeon, assuming now as his partner, Mr Hamilton, professor of anatomy,
instead of Dr Gordon, who had necessarily, from the change in his practice,
withdrawn from the concern.
In 1769, a circumstance
occurred which totally altered Dr Moore’s prospects in life, and opened up
others more congenial, there is every reason to believe, than those to which
his profession confined him. In the year just named, he was called upon to
attend James George, duke of Hamilton, who, then but in the fourteenth year
of his age, was affected with a consumptive disorder, of which, after a
lingering illness, he died. Dr Moore’s assiduity in this case, although
unavailing as to the issue, led to a close connexion with the noble family
of his late patient. In the following year, having previously obtained a
diploma as doctor of medicine from the university of Glasgow, he was engaged
by the duchess of Argyle to attend her son, the duke of Hamilton, as a
companion during his travels. The duke, who was at this time about fourteen
or fifteen years of age, was, like his brother, also of a sickly
constitution, and in Dr Moore was found exactly such a person as was fittest
to attend him; one who combined a knowledge of medicine with some experience
of continental travel, and an enlightened mind. The young duke and his
companion remained abroad for five years, during which they visited France,
Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.
On his return from the
continent, which was in the year 1778, Dr Moore removed with his family from
Glasgow to London, and in the year following, 1779, published his celebrated
work, entitled, "A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and
Germany." This work was so well received, that it attained a seventh edition
in less than ten years, besides the Irish editions, and French, German, and
Italian translations. Two years afterwards, he published a continuation of
the same work, entitled, "A View of Society and Manners in Italy." During
this period, however, his medical practice was by no means extensive; a
circumstance which has been attributed, not to any disinclination on the
part of the public, with whom he was so popular as an author, to patronize
him, but to his own reluctance to engage in the drudgery entailed on a
general practice. The rambling and unfettered life which he had led upon the
continent had, in a great degree, unfitted him for the laborious routine of
professional duty, and his reluctance again to involve himself in it appears
to have adhered to him throughout the whole of his after life, and greatly
marred his prosperity in the world.
In 1785, he published his
"Medical Sketches;" a work which sufficiently showed that his limited
practice did not proceed from any deficiency of knowledge in his profession.
It was received with much favour by the public, although it is said to have
given offence to some of the medical gentlemen of the time, who thought
their interest likely to suffer by the disclosures which it made of what had
hitherto been considered amongst the secrets of the profession.
Dr Moore’s next publication
was his celebrated novel, "Zeluco," a work unquestionably of the very
highest order of merit, and which has long since become one of the fixed and
component parts of every British library.
In the August of 1792, he
went to Paris, to witness with his own eyes the memorable proceedings which
were then in progress in the French capital, and which others were content
to learn from report. Dr Moore, on this occasion, frequently attended the
National Assembly. He was present also at the attack on the Tuilleries, and
witnessed many other sanguinary doings of that frightful period. On his
return to England, he began to arrange the materials with which his journey
had supplied him, and in 1795, published "A View of the Causes and Progress
of the French Revolution," in two volumes 8vo., dedicated to the duke of
Devonshire. This work was followed, in 1796, by "Edward: Various Views of
Human Nature, taken from Life and Manners, chiefly in England;" and this
again, in 1800, by "Mordaunt, being Sketches of Life, Characters, and
Manners in various countries; including the Memoirs of a French Lady of
Quality," in two volumes 8vo. These works scarcely supported the reputation
which their author had previously acquired: in the latter he is supposed, in
detailing some gallant feats of a young British officer, to allude to his
heroic son, the late general Moore, who was then field-officer.
Dr Moore has the merit of
having been one of the first men of note who appreciated and noticed the
talents of Burns, who drew up, and forwarded to him, at his request,
a sketch of his life. This was followed by a correspondence in 1787,
which is to be found in those editions of the poet’s works, which include
his Letters.
At the time of the
publication of his last work, "Mordaunt," Dr Moore had attained the 70th
year of his age. He did not again appear before the public, but spent the
short remaining period of his life in the quiet seclusion of his
residence at Richmond, in Surrey. After an illness of considerable duration,
he died at his house in Clifford Street, London, February 29, 1802.
"As an author," says a
distinguished modern writer, [Mr Thomas Campbell, in his memoir of Dr Moore,
contributed to Brewster’s Edinburgh Encyclopedia.] "Dr Moore was
more distinguished by the range of his information, than by its accuracy, or
extent upon any particular subject; and his writings did not owe their
celebrity to any great depth or even originality of thought. As a novelist,
he showed no extraordinary felicity in the department of invention; no great
powers of diversifying his characters, or ease in conducting his narrative.
The main quality of his works is that particular species of sardonic wit,
with which they are indeed perhaps profusely tinctured, but which frequently
confers a grace and poignancy on the general strain of good sense and
judicious observation, that pervades the whole of them."
Dr Moore left five sons, and
one daughter, by his wife, previously Miss Simson, daughter of the reverend
Mr Simson, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow. The eldest of
the former, John, became the celebrated military general already alluded to;
the second adopted his father’s profession; the third entered the navy; the
fourth was admitted into the department of the secretary of state; and the
fifth was bred to the bar.